


Off-world vacations for the heartbroken and desperate

by Iviprism, Rainbowshards (Iviprism)



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Hermitcraft RPF, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate lore, Angst, Crossover, Enby iskall, Enderman! Ranboo, Enderman!Nikki, FTM Trans Fundy, Fundy deserves a break and he is getting one, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Iskall has a robot arm and no one can take that from me, It has turned more angsty than I anticipated, M/M, Non-Human!Dream, Ranboo and Nikki are siblings, Respawn Mechanics, Vex!Cub - Freeform, Vex!Scar, Void creature-Xisuma, Watcher!Grian, Winged! Philza, lore compliant alternate universe, oups
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:15:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 66,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27940628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iviprism/pseuds/Iviprism, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iviprism/pseuds/Rainbowshards
Summary: ‘We often don’t get visitors unless they are really close to us. Lately it has gotten more rare to ever bring guests… but if at least three Hermits can give a good opinion of you Im sure Xisuma wouldn’t be against letting you stay for some weeks’Fundy almost dropped his communicator.This was not happening. Iskall couldn’t possibly be suggesting taking him into HermitcraftOrFundy's lore gets angstier the more I stare at Dream SMP and since I want him to be happy and I also crave Hermitcraft X Dream Smp content I send the fox boy to Hermitcraft so he can get some space to heal and have fun.
Relationships: Clay | Dream/Floris | Fundy
Comments: 688
Kudos: 1441
Collections: THE BEST





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this because I want to see more crossover content in the world. Fair warning this is my first work, english is not my first language and this isn't beta read so phrasing will most likely be off. Im sorry in advance for the bad english :') 
> 
> Im going off my own lore but there isn't any drastic changes that need to be explained right away
> 
> If you would like to know more about this lore you can hit my inbox or dms in my tumblr @ivi-prism :3

The night was quiet. Awfully quiet considering Fundy’s house was being haunted by his late father.

The ginger didn’t have a moment of peace inside his own house since he was constantly being startled and annoyed by the ghost of the man that he once admired.

If he thinked about him he was going to make it worse. And besides, the poltergeist wasn’t here and it was best to not call upon him with his thoughts.

Fundy sat in the middle of his room, quietly basking in the moonlight whilst staring at a ring in his hand. Trying to think of something that wasn’t his father, or the current state of events, or his fiancé or-

Really he didn’t want to think at all. He kept staring at the ring under the white light that came through the window hoping all the painful memories would melt away to leave his mind as blank and white as the moonlight.

But that sweet quiet peace never came, as his raising mind kept throwing questions and coming up with the worst answers.

It was probably the nervousness and anxiety that came before a big day. It was normal, afterall he was getting married in three days.

And he would have believed it to be true if he hadn’t felt like this for almost an entire month. Not even taking into account how a deep feeling of dread had stolen away all sleep from him. He considered going out and taking a walk but the reminder of the ever growing obsidian walls around his nation deterred him. 

Right. He was trapped here. 

Dream himself had said it, and that had made his stomach twist and drop. 

The masked being had talked to him afterwards arguing that it was just a stance he needed to take against Tommy but that he had nothing against him, furthermore Fundy would be granted a free pass to go whenever he wanted after the wedding. 

The memory immediately made him tear up. He didn’t know if it was due to the fear and heartbreak his fiancé had caused him, or if it was the feeling of alienation and guilt he felt for having that advantage over his fellow citizens and friends. 

If they had known about the wedding they would have surely called him a traitor or maybe they would have stared at him in silence with an unreadable expression just as Tommy had done. 

Suddenly the temperature dropped in the room, an unexpected cold settling inside his bones and overpowering him, drawing the air out of his lungs and making him want to curl on himself and lay there until it went away. He did exactly that, resting in the hardwood floor while shivering slightly. He tried to draw a shaky breath but all he managed was to let out a wail, followed by tears and a violent shake of his body. 

It was the overwhelming loneliness that had settled in him. Crushing him under its weight and forcing wails and cries out of him in a desperate attempt as to not suffocate under it. 

He was alone.

All alone.

His father was long gone even before he had died. His family kept distance unsure of what to do with him, his friends distrustful or wary of him and Dream far away. So far away that Fundy wondered if he had ever been close to him at all. 

Memories of their talks that might have been awkward but endearing in the past looked disinterested and annoyed now. Their first date that had been something spontaneous and exciting now looked as if Dream had smiled politely and gone with it out of pleasantries. 

And Fundy kept going, revisiting every conversation and wondering if any of it had been sincere. If he had been loved. If he had been wanted, at least once. 

And he was, he was wanted and desired the night he had told Dream the identity of his father. Fundy had been afraid and nervous but he was comforted by warm hugs and gentle kisses, and he had felt oh so happy, and safe, and wanted. 

Now he saw that night for what it was. The start of Dream’s true interest for him, as the son of Wilbur and as a pawn to hurt the exiles that had dared to question his authority over them. 

His blood was wanted, his status, his position as well. But he himself had never been desired, and the realization tore a cry out of his throat and his body shook more severely with the weight of his tears and his pain.

He ripped a blanket from his bed and curled in on himself even more to try and comfort himself, to try and forget the world, hiding in all the warmth and familiarity he could muster himself.

But when the state of your country and the freedom of your friends were put in jeopardy by the person you had trusted and confided the most you couldn’t help but feel despair and heartbreak. Especially since without his friends and Dream, who was left?

His uncles? One in exile and spiteful and the other lost since the destruction of L’Manberg.

His grandfather? Wary and unsure of him, trying his best but dealing with his own type of grief still.

His father? Lost, three times had Fundy lost his father. First to his pride and desire for power, then to his paranoia and rage and finally to a sword. 

His mother? Long gone. 

What about his friends? Surely at least one would be there for him, he pleaded.

Tubbo? Angry at him

Quackity? Wary of him

Eret? Willing to help but not willing enough if Fundy had something to say

Nikki? Trying her absolute best, but preoccupied with her younger brother 

Then who was left?

Was someone even left? 

Not anyone Fundy was willing to rely on

The tears hadn’t stopped flowing but his breathing had at least evened out. Not because he felt better, far from it. He had given up. Anyone else he knew and would have been willing to talk to lived outside the walls, on their own or the badlands.

He felt so alone, like he would never get to have a truthful conversation with someone again. No one would be willing to be truthful with him and anyone that could, he had driven away in some way. 

He was annoying, and clingy and perhaps quick to anger but he had never known any better, he was never taught any better. But nobody cared.

He had been the coddled son of the general that the other soldiers looked down on, he had been the ungrateful son that had tried to take away the power his father had consolidated, he had been the traitorous bastard that had sold his soul to the enemy for power, he had been the incompetent henchman of said tyrant, and he had been the useless spy, and he had been so many things but apparently not a single one that would convince anyone to stay by his side.

Truly by his side. 

He whimpered under the weight of his loneliness. 

Had it been another day, he would have probably called Dream to talk. The masked man might have looked cold and threatening to the outside world but he had a way to melt Fundy’s worries away with warm hugs and gentle touches. 

Those gentler, simpler times were shattered by the confrontations he had the displeasure to witness just weeks ago. 

Fundy had known from the start it wouldn't be easy due to their positions but slowly the blond had started to make it clear that his priorities were someone else, not only had he no problem pushing his father further into his own destruction, but he had helped to destroy L’Manberg directly.

He had come back for Fundy and he had given this huge spiel about having to do this for the good of everyone to drive Tommy away since the teenager had been the main instigator to all the wars they had lived through. And Fundy had not agreed at all, but had reasoned his fiancé was doing things out of a sense of responsibility.  
That memory disgusted him, so he took his silver ring off and angrily tossed it aside, before hiding his face between his hands to try and silence his cries. 

He had been so foolish, it was clear now all those words had been lip service to ease him back into Dream’s side. The blond had never cared for anything aside from his own twisted satisfaction with chaos and his desire for absolute power.

Fundy cried even harder, thinking that despite all that he had stayed, that he had tried to find a way to make it work, it had all been for nothing. Even if he had failed to convince Dream to leave his destructive ways he had hoped to at least hold his affections, but the way the admin’s attention seemed to drift back every time towards his close friend George made it clear that Fundy had played a losing game since the start. 

Why would Dream keep him close if they did not agree and if he didn’t care for Fundy? 

Control and power. It was always about those two principles. The only reason people kept him close had always been for control and power.

And he sank further down the floor and the blanket, trying to hide from the heavy feeling in his chest. If only he could reach out without feeling guilty or afraid. 

Everything felt like the wrong decision, as if he was being watched and he could do no good… perhaps it was better if he disappeared under the blankets.

‘Fundy?’ Called an other-wordly voice ‘where are you?’

The ginger immediately sat down and frantically looked around for things to take with him. He definitely did not want to disappear under the blankets if the ghost had come back.

‘Sorry I came back so late son! I was talking with Tommy-‘ the ghost kept talking while clearly going up to the second floor.

Fundy was desperate to avoid conversation. Grabing a sleeping bag and saving it on his inventory, followed by blankets and his axe. Quickly grabbing his jacket and hat to put them on, and then he was on his feet glancing around figuring out what else he could need.

‘But! He did give me some cookies I brought so I hope- Fundy?’ Ghostbur stood, or rather floated in front of the door, staring at his crying and agitated son.

The fox hybrid froze in place. Mind racing with options, stay quiet, yell back, go past him and down the stairs.

‘Son what's wrong?’ Asked Ghostbur getting closer, concern all written on his face. 

Concern Fundy didn’t want nor need, so before the ghost could close the distance between them he glanced back, turned around, opened the window and jumped.

‘Fundy!’ Was all that Ghostbur managed to say. He stood there for a moment processing what he had seen. All had happened too fast but one thing was clear and it was that Fundy was upset. The ghost quickly approached the window to look for his son, but all he managed to catch was a blur of orange fur and black paws that darted quickly out of view.

He would have followed but experience told him his son was faster than he ever was. No wonder the little rascal had always won when they played tag together. 

Ghostbur sighted and looked around just to see a silver ring forgotten on the floor, he stared at it for some time before deciding to head out. Fundy might be opposed to talking to him but if his son was upset he was going to be there to listen to him. Even if Fundy didn’t want him there. And so he started to search, approaching Nikki’s house first.


	2. Chapter 2

Fundy didn’t really think before jumping, but he had jumped and he was running now. Sure that he had left half of what he wanted to bring with him but even more sure that he didn’t want to confront his father in this state. So he kept running before remmembering that the sea was behind that stupid obsidian box, so he made a sharp turn running away without a clear destination in mind. Until he remembered the old bunker.

He built it in case things went awry, and they had gone so badly of the rails that he had forgotten it even existed. Until now.

It was a safe, secluded and secret place from the world. It was perfect. Especially to keep a ghost away. So he changed route and ran where the flag of Manberg had once stood. 

No one knew the place was there and even if they knew no one would be sure how to activate it’s entrance. Having eye spiders as a key had started as a joke but now he was grateful for choosing such a bizarre item that nobody would think of using. He threw one spider eye into the floor and waited, a bit longer than usual but the pistons fired and revealed the grey entrance with just a 4 second delay. And so he dropped down and stared at the dark hall, torches burnt.

Quickly he took a flint and steel out of his inventory and approached the first torch, just to lean on the wall and find it wet.

Had water filtered down here? He tried to lit the first torch but it didn’t work, the same thing happened to the second, third and four. When he reached for the fifth his paw landed on cold water that made him flinch. 

He took out a new torch out of his inventory and lit it up, revealing a pool of water going all the way from the step ahead to the door. Mushroom-light still visible but with the water concerningly close.

‘For void’s sake! Really? REALLY?!’- he complained loudly to no one at the same time as he took a sponge out. This was the only safe place he had and water wasn’t going to keep him away from it. 

But a broken piston door would, as he sadly discovered after draining the water.  
The redstone dust all gone and the components damaged or out of place meant the piston door wouldn't open no matter what he tried. 

He could have mined through it, if he hadn’t left his pickaxe back on his house in a hurry.

He sighted and hit the iron door with both hands,frustrated to no end. The dry punches did not resonate through the hall up the stairs, but his frustrated screams did. 

Why? Why couldn’t he have this at least? He had given up on looking for help as it was pointless! He had accepted that he would have to deal with it alone. So why was his means of achieving that blocked like this? 

Why would the universe conspire against him like that? He just wanted a safe place to cry and fall asleep! Was that too much to ask? 

The adrenaline of running away and hiding had stopped his tears but the anger and feel of hopelessness brought them back. He slid down the door until he was on his knees, fists still firm on the concrete. 

He knew he should have paid more attention back on the basic redstone courses, he knew he should have secured the place to prevent something like this from happening. He knew he should have done more and he hadn’t and that’s why he was crying again.

He stayed there until his knees hurt. Then he sat down against the door and tried to compose himself. He was frustrated, tired and sad but he wasn’t going to get any better if he didn’t get to rest. And surely a humid concrete underground bunker was no place to sleep, especially since he could be found if someone somehow opened the entrance whilst searching for him.

He was determined to prevent that from happening so he steadied himself, thinking what to do.

If he replaced the redstone components for ones that weren’t flooded then the door should work again. But the circuitry was unreachable without his pickaxe so his enthusiasm was defeated again. 

If he had just taken his pickaxe on his way out! Why had that stupid ghost come back? None of this would have happened if his father had just stayed away from him! Why was so difficult for him to understand that he didn’t want him close! He had jumped out a window just to stay away-

The thought of the window jump reminded him of the famous ‘inspection window’ Iskall had suggested to stop Fundy from moving the whole door. So he stood up and backed up the stairs. Indeed there it was.

In close enough distance to smash it open if he jumped and swung his axe. And he did exactly that, making sure to remove all the frame before jumping up and grabbing the edge. It was uncomfortable, he could feel the little glass pieces threatening to cut him if he dared to grab the edge more tightly. So he jumped back down, bringing most of the shards with him. 

After making sure he hadn’t injured himself he jumped up again, with the edge clear to grab he pulled himself up and snucked inside the tight space. It was dark but the redstone line still shone enough to see, besides Fundy had never needed that much light to work with in the first place.

What he did need was redstone knowledge, which he had little to none, especially dealing with a design he hadn’t designed himself.

What was with redstone looking alien when someone else designed it? Somehow spells and enchanting were more consistent. But this door would only open with redstone so he had to find a way to fix it.

Or, he could call Iskall for help.

He laid there staring at the observers, repeaters and pistons wondering if Iskall would pick up if he called them. After the last time, Fundy doubted that the cyborg would want to talk with him again. 

His ears flattened against his head, feeling guilty for being so annoying the last time he had talked with Iskall after they had been so ice to agree to help with the piston door.

But he was desperate, truly desperate. 

It was cold, dark, humid and anyone could stumble inside at any moment if they tried. 

So he pulled his communicator out of his jacket, closing the GPS and his data analyzer and opened his contact list.

There in the off- world contacts he found Iskall’s name, and called. 

He waited for 20 seconds that extended to a whole eternity, wondering what to say or if this had been a good idea at all. 

It had not. What if the cyborg was busy? With them being a Hermit it was almost guaranteed they would be busy. And surely they wouldn’t even bother answering the call. 

He was about to hang up when Iskall answered or rather asked ‘Hallo?’ 

‘Hey Iskall’ Fundy answered timidly, voice still shaky and weak from all the crying 

‘Fundy?’ The confusion was tangible in the cyborg's voice

The ginger regret ever doing this call

‘Yup that’s me, how are you doing?’ Fundy said trying to push the conversation forward

‘Im… Im fine dude’ they answered trying not to sound awkward 

‘Glad to hear that,’ Fundy said, waiting to die right there. Truly this had been a terrible idea 

‘Is everything alright?’ Iskall asked with slight concern in their voice that took Fundy by surprise

‘Of course! Well. Mostly. You see my piston door might have broken just a tiny bit’ he played with the collar of his jacket to rub off the awkwardness of his voice ‘And I don’t know how to fix it so I was wondering if you would be willing to help me?'

He sounded so pathetic to his own ears that it was sickening

‘Um… sure’ was all Iskall answered, hesitance clear in their voice

‘I- I promise I won’t be annoying this time!’ Fundy was quickly to say, even leaving the collar in his jacket alone to gesture pleadingly with his hand even if no one was there to see him

‘I was just… so excited to talk to a Hermit and… I thought it would be funny...and-and I’m sorry’ he couldn’t sound more desperate even if he tried 

Iskall remained silent for an excruciatingly long amount of time and Fundy was about to apologize again when they answered

‘Don’t worry dude. Redstone breaks everytime’ said Iskall with a cheery voice 

Fundy let out a sigh he didn’t knew he was holding

‘I assume this is going to have to be tech assistance again’ 

‘Yeah it is’ Fundy said while turning the flashlight of his communicator and setting the external camera ‘It is a bit dark’ 

‘Oh it is dark’ Iskall replied once the image became visible on their communicator 

‘Yeah! I’m on the little crawl space we left behind the inspection window’ Fundy said as he approached the circuitry and adjusting the light levels of the communicator

‘I see, what happened to the door?’

‘The place flooded and the door doesn't open now’

‘Ah’ was the eloquent answered that Iskall offered

The cyborg remained silently while they presumably examined the situation

‘Fundy?’

‘Yes?’

‘Could you dismantle the frame? I can’t do much with just the top circuitry’

‘I'm afraid I can’t. I don’t have a pickaxe or a way of getting one right now, I only managed to crawl up here because of the window’

‘I see’ Iskall answered. Fundy could almost hear how they stroke their beard thinking 

‘Although I don’t need to open the entire door’ Fundy said, deep in though ‘I just need at least a one block space to sneak in’

‘You sure you could fit in such a thigh gap?’ Iskall asked, clearly not liking the idea

‘Yeah is okay’ 

‘Well in that case just activate the piston at your left with a redstone torch. It will retract and pull the piston that keeps the top block in the middle in place’

Fundy nodded and looked through his inventory, noting he didn’t have the redstone to do it, thankfully the redstone line that connected the circuitry to the lever still remained so he quickly grabbed a fistful. 

‘Where are you going?’ Iskall asked seeing the image getting away from the components

‘I need to craft a torch first’ answered Fundy before dropping out of the crawl space, landing perfectly on his paws

‘Nice! 10/10’ came the response of Iskall that managed to pull a small grin in the ginger’s face 

‘Thank you!’ Fundy said, flipping the camera view to the internal camera while he placed a hand on his chin ‘I’m a bit of a parkour expert myself’ he said confidently to his only spectator

Iskall instead of laughing at the little joke immediately asked ‘Fundy are you alright?’ 

Fundy tried to talk but no words escaped his mouth. He had not expected this at all.

‘Wh-What?’ Fundy asked staring at his camera

‘You look upset’ was all the explanation that Iskall provided

Prompted by that, Fundy stared to his own image on the screen, his hair a mess, his eyes red from all the crying, dark eye bags and dry tear trails made his pale complexion look even paler. He looked miserable.

‘Ohu! I'm just tired. Very tired’ Fundy was quick to say 

‘You know how it is. You start a new project and then you have lost some days of sleep’ he gave the most unconvincing smile there ever was ‘‘but I’m okay don’t worry’ 

As soon as he finished giving excuses, Iskall opened their camera to reveal a stern expression. Cybernetic eye clearly staring intently at him. 

Fundy felt a bit exposed under the examination of the cyborg but before he could talk Iskall spoke up.

‘‘I have gone days without sleeping, my record is a week and a half Fundy. I know how a tired person looks. You definitely look tired but also upset’ they said before their serious face gave away to a more concerned expression. 

Fundy was stunned by that look of concern. He would have never expected it. The sheer sincerity of their expression was so confusing to him. Iskall barely knew him. 

‘Fundy?’ asked the cyborg

‘Ye-yeah... I'm upset’ Said Fundy trying to end that conversation right there. Why would they be concerned? 

‘But I really need to finish this a-and is nothing…. really. Don’t worry about it’ he lied

‘You don’t sound convinced’

Fundy was about to say something back but Iskall continued

‘But I won’t push it more’ They said with finality ‘You called for a tech call and it would be rude if I overstepped’  
Said that Iskall turned off his camera and Fundy realized that he didn’t like the cyborg being impersonal with him.

It was a bit ridiculous since this was the second time they talked but Iskall was just a soothing presence, or rather they were weirdly approachable. 

Fundy sighed before addressing the camera again

‘Iskall, you are not overstepping. Thank you for worrying… I just… need to get in the bunker now. I don’t feel safe out here’ 

‘Do what you have to do’ Iskall answered 

And then we can talk? Was the unasked question that lingered in the air. 

Fundy didn't know if it was right to ask so he did the best thing and gave the largest puppy eyes he could muster

It apparently worked since Iskall turned on his camera again giving a gentle smile to the fox hybrid ‘and if you wish to talk afterwards. i would be glad to listen’ they said

Fundy gave a little nod before turning his camera back to the exterior one. 

‘I'm gonna have to put you in my pocket’ he said

Iskall laughed. A honest loud laugh that made Fundy immediately grateful for insisting the cyborg to stay.

He quickly crafted a pair of redstone torches and saved one on his inventory, while he held the other in his mouth before backing and jumping up. Grabbing the ledge again and pulling himself up

‘Did you make it?’ Iskall asked from the pocket in Fundy’s jacket. Who immediately took the redstone torch from his mouth to answer

‘Yup im back in the top circuitry’ he said taking the communicator back out his pocket to allow Iskall to see what he was doing 

‘So I place the torch here?’ Fundy pointed to the piston

‘Yup! Although you won’t be able to close the door until you remove the torch’ Iskall clarified

‘Is alright. I doubt someone will try and sneak through such a small space. And even if they do I’ll hear them coming’ he said placing the torch and hearing pistons fire

‘Are you hiding right now?’

‘More or less’ Fundy said while pocketing his communicator again and backing up to drop down

‘More or less as in ‘you are hiding’ or as in ‘is not that serious?’ Iskall asked

Fundy dropped down and saw that the upper middle block had retracted ‘Iskall it worked!’

Iskall cheered and before he could repeat their question Fundy jumped, managing to fit half his body through the tiny space

‘Are you stuck?’ 

‘Nope!’ Fundy insisted while pushing with his hands and wringing his body until he fell down on the other side of the door

‘You did it?’ Iskall asked

Fundy sat down and saw his small room and storage room, he took out his communicator out of his pocket and showed Iskall ‘I did it!’’

‘Nice dude!’ Iskall cheered again

‘I got a bit worried since I have had friends try that and then I have to go and save their butt’ they said giggling possibly at a memory ‘Glad you didn’t got stuck’

‘I’m a fox! I couldn’t get stuck even if I tried’

Iskall laughed even more strongly. The sound booming and contagious ‘oh that friend that got stuck is a dog hybrid. He just went ‘Don’t question it my dude. I can do it’ and then he got stuck and I had to pull him out of there and he had the goofiest sad puppy eyes I have ever seen’ at the memory of Ren getting stuck in one of The Treasure Island many tunnels Iskall laughed even more loudly.

Fundy couldn’t help but smile. Even chuckling a bit. He had known Iskall for less than two conversations but he was sure that their laughter was just one of the best he could find in the interplanetary system.

Between chuckles and giggles both fell into comfortable silence and Fundy took off his hat, ruffling his hair. He was exhausted.

‘You okay there?’ Iskall asked camera still turned on

‘Yeah… just… really tired’ Fundy said, lifting the camera so he could talk with Iskall. He chuckled lightly. Exhausted was an understatement, he could collapse right there and be out cold for three days straight.

The look of concern returned to Iskall’s face

‘Do you need someone to talk to?’ they asked

Fundy went over it in his mind. Letting the current events settle on his memory. Did he need someone to talk to?

He had been stressing out about his wedding and the future of his country in his house, feeling all alone. And then the literal ghost of his father came back and offered some sort of comfort but he had jumped out of a window to avoid confronting him. And he had run all the way into a flooded bunker just to have a quiet place, and he was now talking with Iskall. 

It hadn’t been a good night. 

Fundy sighed and tried smiling to keep the tears from coming back ‘I think… I think I need a hug more than anything’ was all he managed to say before the tear started falling again 

‘Aw no. Fundy’ Iskall said softly trying to grab the ginger’s attention

‘Im a mess. I’m sorry’ Fundy said without thinking, drying his tears with the sleeve of his jacket 

‘Hey why are you apologizing for?’ they asked, concern written all over their face ‘For all I know I should be the one apologizing for not having a way of giving you a hug’

Fundy chuckled lightly at that. He found that weirdly comforting

‘Iskall Im sorry’ he said softly

‘Dude stop apologizing!’ concern and probably exasperation clung to the cyborgs face 

‘But I have to apologize! I… I was so rude and annoying to you last time… and… you seem like such a nice person and-’

‘Fundy. Stop’ Iskall said. Tone suddenly serious 

The fox hybrid looked surprised at the screen. He saw Iskall sigh to regain their composure

‘Fundy you keep going off tangents. You don’t need to apologize to me. It's okay, I have been trolled before. Is not a crime. Don’t fret over it ’ Iskall clarified, concern and gentleness returning to his voice 

‘ But you called me out of the blue to fix a piston door so you could hide, and you were desperate enough to sneak through a small gap!’ Iskall paused a bit to calm down. Fundy would dare to assume they sounded slightly upset

‘ And then you asked me to stay on call because you wanted to talk to someone and now you are crying. I'm sincerely worried for you Fundy. Like genuinely concern’ they explained

The fox hybrid sighed. Put like that it did sound concerning

‘Is a pretty long story’ he said

‘Well I have time’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enoyed it and thanks for reading! :3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I have been readding your comments and you all are so nice! Thank you so much :3
> 
> Tw for this chapter: a brief moment that could be read as a panic attack 
> 
> If anything else needs to be tagged leave it in the comments below and I'll take care of it

Fundy sighed. He had asked to talk with Iskall in the first place. He needed to voice so many things and yet he wasn’t able to start. The cyborg must had seen his racing thoughts from the camera since they suggested-

‘We can turn off cameras and just talk if it makes it easier for you’

That actually sounded like a good idea. And so he gave a little nod and his communicator stopped receiving or transmitting any image. Just the blue screen stared him back, before he placed the phone back against his ear.

‘Better?’ Iskall asked

‘Yes. Thank you,’ Fundy answered, still trying to find how to start the conversation

If he started by his abandonment issues that would be oversharing, right?

Better not risk it. Besides why would he talk about his father? He was dead. Even if he was a ghost there was no reason he should talk about him, it didn’t matter or at least he was trying to convince himself that it didn’t matter but- 

‘Fundy?’ Iskall asked gently on the other side of the call, effectively snapping Fundy out of his brief spiral into his own mind

‘I… I don’t know where to start… or what to say really is… is just a lot’ Fundy admitted while he rubbed his arm slightly trying to come up with something 

‘Well the best place to start is always the beginning. Why are you hiding in a bunker right now?’ They asked trying to push the conversation forward

Fundy would have argued that he wanted to be away from the ghost of his father but to be sincere he wanted to be alone to sort out his feelings, even if being alone made the overwhelming loneliness even worse.

‘I was stressing out and I need a quiet place to think’ he answered

‘And what was stressing you out in the first place?’ 

Fundy wondered for a moment what didn’t stress him out these days?  
Had he even relaxed in the last month? Probably not. 

‘A lot of things really’ Said the fox hybrid sliding down a bit against the door ‘‘but I suppose my wedding is the biggest stress factor right now’ 

‘What? Wedding?’ Confusion audible on Iskall’s voice

‘Do you... remember when we talked before... that I mentioned I was getting married?’

‘Dude that wasn’t a joke?’ 

‘Nope, I have been engaged for a good while now’

‘Oh’ was all that Iskall said before coughing awkwardly ‘you mentioned it so offhandedly that day I thought you were kidding’ 

‘Is okay. I was pretty annoying’ Fundy said smiling a little bit at the memory 

‘Yeah you where really annoying’ Iskall affirmed 

Fundy smiled a little, the last few tears that he had left on his eyes fell ‘is a talent on mine’

‘More like a curse but I won’t argue‘ Iskall said, tone gentle and soft 

‘But back to this’ they paused awkwardly while looking for the word ‘thing’ 

Fundy guessed by the tone that the cyborg wasn't comfortable with this topic and almost immediately they proved him right. 

‘ I'm not good giving love advice’ they admitted ‘but’ they clear their throat ‘I can always try’ 

‘Oh no! no! That isn’t the problem… well it is a bit… but it is just a small part… so don’t worry about it… I mean it is kinda important to me but in the larger scheme of things is not THAT important so let’s not talk about it’ Fundy rambled on trying to avoid the topic at all cost. 

The cyborg didn’t need to hear about his unfortunate love life. Besides if he started talking about Dream he would need to explain a lot, and that would mean revisiting his old memories with him, and Fundy would rather just have one issue dealt at the time 

‘Well that just makes it sound as if it is one of the main things bothering you’ Iskall replied 

Fundy facepalmed. They were absolutely right, his rambling just made it clear how much it bothered him

‘Then what is the second biggest thing bothering you right now’ they said, trying to drive the conversation back into something that Fundy was more comfortable with.

‘I don’t know Iskall is just…’ Fundy went silent again

He couldn’t say anything.

‘I'm sorry… I was the one that wanted to talk and now I'm not saying anything’

‘Don’t worry about it dude. It sounds like you are going through a lot. If just being here is of any help then I’m more than glad to stay’ Iskall said, smile audible

Fundy would never stop feeling guilty over this. He had been mean to Iskall and an inconvenience and yet they were still here. Being kind to him and trying to understand.

‘Why are you being so nice to me?’ Fundy surprised himself by asking that outloud

‘What? What do you mean?’ Iskall asked, smile gone from what Fundy could tell

‘Is… is just… people aren’t usually nice to me… unless they want something in return… or is insincere and… well… you know next to nothing about me’ the more he spoke the quieter he got. 

This was stupid. Iskall had said they were worried. Why say this stuff? Why question it? They barely knew him, they had no reason to lie. Heck! They were a Hermit! Iskall didn’t need resources or power from him.

‘A lot of things just made a whole lot more of sense’ Iskall replied softly

‘Huh?’ Fundy asked clearly confused

‘Nevermind’ Iskall said ‘I was thinking out loud. That. What you just said gives me a picture of your world’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Fundy you asked me why I was being nice. Sure we don’t know each other quite well but you asked why i was bothering talking to someone that is crying and in despair’ Iskall said as if it was quite obvious what the problem was

‘Yeah but you could be doing other things so-‘ Fundy tried to explain

‘Hearing someone cry and staying after they asked you to stay is just the right thing to do, I'm not trying to get anything out of this Fundy’ Iskall said almost pained 

The ginger laid there in silence as if the cyborg had reached directly into his mind and had answered to his paranoia. 

Iskall sighed, and then continued ‘‘you sound just like I did before I started world jumping. I remember Scar explaining to me that people would be nice to me because they wanted to’ they paused probably remembering exactly that.

‘Before I ever meet my friends I always thought that people showed concern just to get closer and take advantage of me’ Iskall said, striking a chord on Fundy.

He wasn’t talking because he was afraid? That sounded plausible, but he didn’t reply waiting to hear everything Iskall had to say

‘It took awhile to allow myself to believe that people could genuinely care for me. But those that do, cared and still care a lot. They helped me in so many ways and… I just feel you need that right now Fundy. Maybe I'm projecting a lot and that’s why I'm being so insistent on helping but... it does sound like you need it’ they concluded with a soft voice

Oh how could he ever be annoying to this sweet person? If Fundy had a time machine he would go back and slap himself for being so annoying. Well to be fair Iskall had trolled back but still. They deserved a hug

‘Now I'm the one that feels bad for not being able to give you a hug’ Fundy replied

Iskall chuckled quietly at that ‘we owe too many hugs to each other we are getting arrested’ 

A smile tugged at Fundy’s lips ‘I can just escape’

Iskall chuckled quietly an sighed in relief ‘Sure you can’

‘You say it as if you could escape prison’ Fundy said

‘That’s because I can. I did it once before’ Iskall said nonchalant

‘What?!’ Fundy would have never seen that coming

Iskall just laughed at Fundy’s surprised

‘What do you mean you have escaped prison?! Mx. Iskall that's illegal!’ Fundy said with fake reprehension, to which the cyborg laughed even harder.

Had they really escaped prison once? What? Fundy was intrigued now.

Iskall quieted down, still chuckling lightly ‘It wasn’t anything fancy really, my original planet was just integrating redstone to their technology so you can gauge how the security was’ 

They offered no more details so Fundy was left speculating. Had they lost their eye like that?

‘But we lost focus. We are not here to talk of my past’ Iskall said

‘Yeah’ Fundy remembered they were there to talk about him 

Both of them settled down in silence, it wasn’t tense but it wasn’t comfortable either. Fundy felt obligated to talk but he still didn’t knew what to say, but he knew the cyborg was waiting for him so he went with the first thing he could voice

‘I’m afraid’ Fundy admitted.

He was afraid for his friends, for his nation for himself. He feared the judgement of those same friends, he feared the pain of heartbreak, he feared his fiancé but he also feared being alone. 

‘I'm afraid of so many things and all of them bounce off each other, and… is just a mess’ Fundy admitted, passing a hand through his fluffy tail to ease his nerves. 

‘And I don’t know how to sort it out’ he admitted, sighing to release tension of his shoulders ‘Every option feels like the wrong option’

Backing New L'manberg was the right thing to do, but doing so put him and the others in danger. They all could die for opposing Dream, or by his manipulation, just like his father had done. 

Fundy shuddered a little at that. 

He could persist, keep trying with Dream, but he probably would never reciprocate, and besides his fellow citizens would find their relationship treacherous. 

Really what could he do? And how much energy was left on him to keep pushing onwards?

‘It really does sound like your life is haunting you’ Iskall noted quietly, interrupting Fundy’s train though

‘Haunting?’ he asked back 

‘Yes. Haunting’ Iskall clarified

‘What do you mean by that?’ 

‘Well…’ Iskall sighed ‘I suppose that you can figure by now that my life before world jumping wasn’t that great, sorry I keep bringing it up but it is my best point of reference’ 

They paused, looking for the best way to word their experience

‘Life was a waking nightmare back then, everytime I had a moment to look at myself and the decisions I was taking and the future I had ahead of me it was all bleak.’ Iskall admitted

‘It all seemed like it was too much. Everything felt like it was the wrong option to pick, every decision felt useless as it wouldn’t change the fact I was doomed’ Iskall answered in an strangely serious tone that faltered a bit into sadness at the end

‘And what was the right decision then?’ asked Fundy

‘The right decision?’ asked Iskall back

‘Yeah… what decision did you took that allowed you to get out of all that turmoil’

‘I left’ was the only answer that Iskall gave 

The brevity and severity of the statement settled in Fundy.

‘Y-you left?’

‘Yes. I had nothing to lose but my life, and since I was accepting to go world jumping, death wasn’t a true consequence anymore. So I shook hands with a pair of vexes and left my world’ they answered.

Well coming from a world with no respawning it made sense they would jump to the opportunity. Many famous adventurers had followed that exact same path.

But that wasn’t really something Fundy could do. 

‘But… you left because there wasn’t really something you could do’ Fundy said, thinking it over

‘Correct. I'm just answering your questions, by no means I’m telling you leaving is the solution’ Iskall clarified 

‘Yeah I can’t really leave. Too many people are counting on me and even if I could… those in power won’t let me escape. That wedding is going to happen’

The call went silent.

Fundy wondered if that had been too much, but it was the truth. Dream needed him to enforce his control on the rest of the gavinet, or at least as a bargain chip, even if he didn’t loved him, he wouldn’t pass such an opportunity’

‘Is it an arranged marriage?’ Iskall asked carefully

‘No’ Fundy answered flatly ‘I was the one that proposed and I was the one that organized it. But political interest got mixed and now I… I…’ Fundy hesitated

He didn’t want to go through the wedding, out of fear and heartbreak, but paradoxically those two reasons still pushed him forward to try and see a way out and make it work. 

He didn’t want his friends to consider him a traitor, but he didn’t want Dream against him even if he most likely didn’t love him back. 

‘I think… I think I'm making a huge mistake’ he finally said. Admitting what he might have known for some time now

‘Have you told your family?’asked Iskall, concern in their voice ‘Maybe they could help’ 

Family. Fundy’s Family… had he told them? Of course not.

‘I don’t have a family. Not really’ was all that Fundy said

Iskall sighed and said quietly ‘I hate how much your life seems to parallel mine’

They stayed in silence for a couple of minutes although the time stretched out to a whole eternity. Fundy piecing things together in his mind and building the courage to try and say them again, while Iskall most likely waited for him or figured out what else they could say about this mess. 

‘Fundy is this one of the things that has you afraid?’ Iskall asked softly finally breaking the silence

‘Yes’ was all Fundy said

‘You shouldn’t do it then’

‘What? Not get married?’

‘Yeah’

‘I… I'm not sure if I'm willing to just not… do it’

‘Maybe delaying it would be better then, it gives you time to think’ Iskall suggested

‘I can’t delay it Iskall’ 

‘Why not? If it needs to happen then you could at least ask for some time. Is the least your fiancé could give you’

Fundy froze. Could he really demand something from Dream? He hadn’t tried, always taking things into his own hands or just going along with whatever Dream wanted.

Oh that did not make this any better. 

‘Even if it is not a truly political marriage, there might be a shift of power’ Fundy explain, curling more in himself 'that's not even taking that into account a whole nation will have its eyes on me’ 

A whole nation that will consider me a traitor. He left those words unspoken. 

‘Leaving all the political intrigue aside, are you still willing to do it?’ Iskall asked

‘Yes’ 

‘What is putting you off is the marriage alone because it is mixed with political drama or does your fiancé have to do with your doubts?’ 

Fundy was definitely concerned more with his country, but then the memory of all the times Dream had ignored him in favour of George came to him, he had seen more than once the way the brunette seemed to stir in Dream a bigger reaction than he could ever get from him. Dream always seemed happier and cheerier besides his friend, whilst with Fundy he was quiet and seemed polite but distant. The fox hybrid bit his tongue as not to growl lightly in frustration before answering Iskall. 

‘It is a bit of both really. Situation isn’t great but… my fiancé is definitely not helping’ he admitted

The other side of the call stayed quite before Iskall spoke again, with a tone Fundy would describe as ‘dangerously close to killing someone’ 

‘Who are you marrying Fundy?’ Iskall asked, all softness or concern replaced by a serious tone 

‘Dream’

‘Dream? The administrator of your server? The dude with the white mask?’ Iskall asked, a bit of his harsh tone going away

‘Yeah…’ Fundy admitted

Iskall stayed quiet. The cyborg didn’t know much about Dream from what Fundy could tell, so the fact that they stayed quiet for more than a minute was slightly concerning. 

‘Have you… heard anything about him?’ Fundy asked, curious and afraid of the answer

‘Just some passing remarks made by other admins’ Iskall answered cautiously ’he is quite famous for all the ender dragons he has slayed, apparently he has made a game out of it’ 

Fundy remembered Dream telling him about the various manhaunts he had done with his friends.

‘Uhm… yeah’ was all the ginger added to the conversation. 

He didn’t know what opinion Iskall might have about voidwalkers. Judging by how apprehensive they sounded, perhaps the cyborg didn’t trust the End inhabitants. Which wasn’t something unusual but Fundy didn’t need to make this more complicated. 

‘But regardless’ Iskall continued the conversation themselves ‘getting married should be scary in the ‘I'm excited and I want to do good and I’m not sure if I can do it but I will try’ way not in the ‘I’m agonizing over it and I'm running to hide in a bunker because of it’

Fundy would have laughed if the statement hadn’t punched him in the gut. 

‘I… I’m not… is not’ Fundy tried to explain but he couldn’t find words, just tears

‘Is...is not that… that I’m afraid- of him… no’ Fundy tried to keep his emotions in check but they had been bubbling quietly over some time and they were about to boil over

Iskall heard his voice getting shaky and immediately tried to clear things up ‘I think I misspoke- Fundy’

‘No! No you didn’t misspoke!’ Fundy continued voice getting wobbly ‘I get what you are saying! and I agree!’ Fundy didn’t meant to raise his voice but he was getting overwhelmed ‘Is just… that-that… that… that’s not it… it is but not completely and- and’ he closed his eyes and digging his sharp claws into his palm trying to calm himself, only seeming to upset himself more

‘Fundy take it easy’ Iskall said, gentleness and concern overtaking his voice 

This was too much. Far too much for him. He wanted to snap and just say everything that was troubling him.

And so he did. 

‘Is far too many things that stress me out and have me upset! and the wedding just makes all the problems more glaringly terrible !’ Fundy almost screamed, increasing the speed in which he talked with every word

‘I have to worry about my position as secretary of state, and I have to help Tubbo but also if I help him in such a way we can avoid all conflict, we are bending the knee to Dream who is going on a bit of a power rampage right now using the nation as a means of getting a rise out of the people he doesn't like and any sane person would just side with their friends and nation to take down his megalomaniac ass but he is my fiancé and I don’t know what to do!’ Fundy was crying and screaming now

‘Fundy! Fundy breath’ Iskall tried to plead 

‘And I don’t know what to do about him or anything and he probably doesn't even love me and I’m so mad and upset for being so stupid for loving him in the first place but I still can’t help it and I still love him and I just want all of this to stop! I just want my country back, my friends safe and I want his love back’ a wail tore from his throat and he cried loudly

‘Fundy-’ Iskall tried again

‘That’s all I want’ he sobbed 

‘Fundy please, please breath’ Iskall pleaded again as they really couldn’t do anything more

Fundy gasped for air discovering he really needed it, and he inhaled again desperate for more. Everything had built up and now it was all out finally free to asphyxiate him under the pain, and anger and sadness and confusion and- 

‘Fundy take deep breaths’ Iskall insisted. Fundy tried but the hiccups and the way his body was trembling didn’t helped him

‘Fundy focus on my voice and take a deep breath’ Iskall repeated the gentleness never leaving his voice, although the worry raised by the minute. 

Fundy tried again and managed.

‘Good. Exhale as slowly as you can’ Iskall encourage him

Slowly but steadily the ginger managed to calm down, it helped that Iskall went through the paces of inhaling and exhaling with him to help even his breathing.

It took a good 20 minutes before Fundy had calmed down again. At least he was relieved he had finally said everything, on a rambling mess but it was out in the open. 

He was still crying rivers but at least his body wasn’t trembling under his desperate attempts to breath, all left of the episode was the occasional little hiccup escaping him.

Meanwhile Iskall on the other side of the call and in an entirely different side of the universe was pacing around on his Omega Tree (of Doom). They had stopped organizing their storage system to take the call and now it had been almost an hour and a half agonizing in silence over this poor fox. The kid had cried whilst talking with them but now he had had a full on attack and they couldn’t do much but worry and wonder just what to do. 

They were at least sure that if they were ever to meet this Dream character, no matter the warnings they would punch him straight in the gut. Twice. Really hard. 

For now all they could do was make sure Fundy calmed down enough 

‘Fundy? Still there?’ they asked softly

The fox hybrid wasn’t sure how he had been able to stay awake since his body felt extremely heavy. He was tired and the exhaustion was settling in his frame quickly.

‘Yup. Still here, I’m just sleepy’

Iskall smiled at that. At least he had calmed down again

‘Glad to hear that, all of that must have been weighing on you so much. No wonder you looked so tired’

‘Yeah… sorry it came out like a mess’

‘Stop apologizing dude. Is alright’

Fundy was about to apologize for apologizing when Iskall interrupted

‘If you apologize for apologizing I will roll my eyes. Even if you can’t see it’ they said still smiling

The hint of a smile graced Fundy’s face 

‘I wasn’t going to do that’

‘Sure’ replied the cyborg sarcastically 

‘For real’ Fundy said before yawning

‘Sounds convincing enough for me’ 

And with that they dropped the conversation. Iskall waited for Fundy to say something else while Fundy enjoyed the silence. 

After sometime Iskall couldn’t bear the silence anymore, still worried about the fox, they asked ‘are you good to talk?’

‘Yes’ Fundy answered softly, blinking the sleepiness out of his eyes 

‘What do you want to do?’

And Fundy might had been ready to answer any question but that one 

‘What?’ Fundy asked genuinely confused

‘About all this… what do you want to do?’ Iskall asked carefully dreading it was too soon

‘I… don’t know what to do’ he replied

‘No I asked what you want to do. Do you want to do anything at all?’ 

Fundy thought about it. He wanted to sleep but then what? He would wake up in the morning and he would have to leave the bunker and face everything again

‘I really don’t know’ 

‘Could I make a suggestion?’ Iskall asked, still cautious

‘Sure’ 

‘Why not take some time for yourself... postpone everything and take some vacations? You can sort everything out like that.’ Iskall suggested

Fundy thought about it. In paper it was a good solution. Get away and sort things out. Have some time away from the ghost of his past and the literal ghost that haunted him, get a break from all the political chaos. Clear his feelings regarding his fiancé. 

But, that same fiancé was the one currently holding their nation hostage in hopes of hurting Tommy. And he was needed more than ever in his position, the gavinet needed all the help they could get and surely Dream wouldn’t allow such a key pawn to just leave his world.

‘I wish I could… but leaving is no option’

‘Not leaving forever tho. Just like a week or two. To clear your mind’

‘No. I literally can’t leave’

‘Is world travel restricted?’ Iskall asked, concern returning immediately to their tone 

‘Not really but… I have to answer to so many people here that I can’t really leave. Starting by Dream’ dread dripping from his voice 

'But. And this is just a question, will the situation even improve if you stay?’ they asked

Not really. Fundy would get married and be considered a traitor or he would cancel the wedding, be outed as a traitor and Dream would be against him in that situation. 

‘No it won’t improve, but leaving won’t help either’ he answered decisively 

‘If you leave to gather yourself, then surely you will be more prepared to deal with that mess when you go back’ , Iskall suggested 

Fundy paused to think it over. Iskall was being frustratingly convincing.

If he left then that would just delay the wedding, and since it had been delayed for months, surely two weeks wouldn’t be a big deal. And in his absence his friends could regroup and replan without the threat of Dream using him against them. Perhaps it wasn’t a terrible idea, until the very real possibility of Dream looking at his information in the interplanetary database crossed his mind. If he left how would he be sure he could stay away long enough?

‘Where would I even go?’ 

‘What do you mean?’ Iskall asked before replying ‘wherever you want!’ 

‘No. Dream could trace me’

The cyborg let an angry huff. They swore over the Void they would punch Dream thrice when they saw him.

‘Isn’t there a secondary admin in your world that could help you?’ Iskall asked, trying to find a way around that stupid masked man

‘None that are in my side’ Fundy replied 

‘You yourself are an admin right?’ 

‘Yup, but I don’t have any access to this world’s panels and besides, I haven’t completed the more advanced training, so I don’t have clearance to make my position temporary information’ 

‘And even if you had, he could still manage to enter the world you travel to’ Iskall said pensively, considering the options. 

It did not help that Fundy was in the DSMP, surely with all the rumours surrounding the masked man all who had joined his world must have had a marker added to their name.

Fundy felt helpless again. It seemed he was truly trapped here. There was no way of getting out of this- 

‘Fundy’ Iskall said, stopping the fox from going down a spiral on his own mind

‘Yes? Fundy asked back

‘You have talked with Doc and Etho before, on a minigame that Elybeat made some time ago… right?’ 

Fundy froze for a moment, forgetting everything. What? Minigame?

Wait.

He had. He had bothered the musician until he invited him to play minigames with ‘a group of friends’, where he had met and pestered both redstoners. 

‘Y-yes… yes I did talk with them… just a bit… why?’

‘I might have an idea Fundy’ said Iskall, voice lighting up with hope

It sounded as if the cyborg had stood up 

‘You- you do?’

‘We often don’t get visitors unless they are really close to us. Lately it has gotten more rare to ever bring guests… but if at least three Hermits can give a good opinion of you Im sure Xisuma wouldn’t be against letting you stay for some weeks’ 

Fundy almost dropped his communicator. 

This was not happening. Iskall couldn’t possibly be suggesting taking him into Hermitcraft.  
All tiredness forgotten he sit up straight again

‘Iskall wait- no… you can’t...no-’ Fundy was stumbling over his words

‘You need a place to stay and if there is an unreachable world is Hermitcraft’ Iskall answered, by the sound of their steps it was clear they were going up some stairs. 

‘But- but why?!’ Fundy asked in disbelief ‘why are you willing to do that?’

‘Many reasons’ Iskall said while the sound of opening chests reached the call ‘Just as I told you before I am worried, and I believe you need the help. And If I can help you I will’ 

Fundy stayed quiet. Thinking. There were many stories surrounding the Hermits, or rather what the Hermits did for the interplanetary community. One known fact was that they always moved in the outer edges of the known universe. Keeping away from everyone thus gaining their title of hermits. Could he really be allowed in such a place? 

‘If you want I can go set this up’ Iskall said ‘if not I can help you think on another solution’

If he wanted he could go to Hermitcraft for vacations?

Fundy tapped his cheek lightly to see if he had fallen asleep. Turns out all of this was very real. The opportunity to pause everything and focus on himself was something he never expected to get, less from a Hermit. Tubbo always talked about the things they did, he himself had listened to the many things the group had done. He had a chance to have vacations there?

He pinched his cheek this time, and yet he still felt it. This was still real life

‘I-Iskall I… I don’t know’ he tried explaining but Iskall interrupted him

‘Please’ they said in the most vulnerable voice Fundy had listened during all this call

Fundy closed his eyes to focus. He was tired and this sounded nice. Why not?

He opened his eyes and looked at the tiny room in front of him. this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and Fundy decided to take Iskall’s advice ‘ I’m in. I'm going’

They sighed and then said with a smile ‘I'm actually relieved’ 

‘What do you need me to do?’ asked Fundy

‘I need you to leave a note to whoever you trust to make it clear you are going on vacations, we don’t need Dream thinking I kidnapped you’ Iskall said chuckling slightly

‘Wait kidnapping? What are you going to do that could send that message?!’ Fundy suddenly started having doubts. 

‘Every time you leave or arrive at a world or use a hub it is registered on the interplanetary database. If you are afraid of being found like that, then the only way to bypass that is teleporting from one planet directly to the other, without using the hub’ Iskall explained, the sound of an elytra being adjusted reached through the call

‘But how are you going to do that!? Not even Enderman can teleport that far!’

‘Short answer. End magic. Long answer you’ll see tomorrow’

‘Tomorrow?!’ Fundy asked flabbergasted. Okay this was a tad bit too much 

‘Since the wedding is so close I figured it would be better to bring you as soon as possible’ they explained

Fair enough

‘So I write a note, and then what?’

‘Then you go the furthest away you can and make sure no one follows you’

‘This those sound like a kidnapping’

Iskall chuckled lightly 

‘Is in case something goes wrong, it gives more time to fix any problems with the teleportation’

‘Alright. Okay. Sure. I go out the open and then what? Speak perfect galactic and summon a portal?’ Fundy joked

‘No. Just call this number’ Iskall said and immediately Fundy’s communicator notify him of a new message, he opened to saw it was Grian’s contact

‘I'm confused’ Fundy said

‘Grian is picking you up’

‘I don’t get it’

‘You’ll get it’ Iskall assured him 

‘Why don’t you explain right now?’

‘Grian has the End magic necessary to teleport to DSMP, and teleport back here with you’ Iskall explained

‘What?’ 

‘He’ll explain better tomorrow. Don’t worry’ 

‘Grian is picking me up?’ Fundy asked still processing the information 

‘Yup. I'm gonna go and set things up. I’ll call you tomorrow alright?

‘Sure’

‘Oh! Before I forget’ Iskall said with a smile ‘bring sunglasses with you’ 

‘Why?’

‘You are going to need them’

And with that Iskall ended the call. They were probably hurring to set things up for Fundy and that made him smile a bit. 

It had all been very sudden but considering all tonight had been quite a surprise he figured going to bed with hope and looking forward to tomorrow was the best possible outcome he could have gotten.

It was scary and maybe he was too quick to accept but that was a problem for future Fundy. For now he went to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of you are so kind! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading! I love your comments they light up my day!
> 
> CW. Cussing, Because Tommyinnit just isn't Tommyinnit without cussing

The moment Iskall hung up the call they took some rockets out of their inventory and exited their base quickly, overseeing the jungle and estimating how much time it would take to go to Xisuma’s base.

By the looks of it the sun would set once they arrived at the bee themed base. It looked like they would be returning by the nether then. 

Didn’t matter. This was important. 

While flying towards the other portion of the jungle Iskall send Grian a message

‘Hey dude I need to talk to you. Can you meet me at Xisuma’s base?’ 

They hoped that would be enough. It would have probably been better if they had spoken to Doc first to convince him to give a good word about Fundy but they could get Etho’s word immediately and call Doc later. 

Getting Xisuma to agree and creating a plan to bring Fundy over was far more important. If Fundy was safe they could figure out later what to do, where to house him and what measures to take to avoid any breaches into their world. But taking him out of there was the most important part.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The eerie feeling of someone watching him send shivers down his spine and he decided to take a peak. It was probably nothing, besides last night he had gone to sleep in a bunker so surely he had to be alone.

It was just him and the mismatched green and red eyes looming over him.

Fundy screamed and backed into the wall just for the enderman hybrid to scream back and back off

‘RANBOO HOW DID YOU GOT HERE?!’ Fundy asked, tail ruffled and fangs showing, with a hand on his chest trying to calm down 

‘Sorry I wasn’t sure if you were asleep’ Ranboo said looking at him innocently

‘You saw me laying down on a bed and you didn’t know if I was asleep?’ the fox asked a bit of anger masking the panic of his voice

‘Well you are on a tiny room behind a piston door and your dad told us you jumped out of a window yesterday so I thought that maybe you were… not… sober’ Ranboo admitted

Wait, the ghost of his father had been in their house? Fundy stood up.

‘He went to your house?’ 

‘Yeah, I was out talking with Tubbo at the time but my sister told me that your dad appeared on our house and that he was really worried because he saw you crying and he tried to talk to you but you jumped from the second floor and ran and that he couldn’t found you so he was searching for you and he asked for help’ Ranboo explained, deadpan as always 

‘And how did you find me?’ 

‘When I got back home Nikki told me all of that and she asked me for help looking for you inside New L’Manberg so I teleported around looking but I didn’t find you and then Tubbo texted me asking why I was teleporting everywhere and I explained and he said that you where probably on your bunker and I asked ‘what bunker?’ and he said ‘the one he has on the area where the flag was’ and I didn’t knew where that was but I didn’t want to ask Tubbo because it was late so I went back home to sleep and then Nikki woke me up for breakfast and I told her ‘one second’ so I went out and I walked around until I manage to tell there was a little space underground and I teleported there and here I am’ the enderman hybrid finished explaining.

People that told Fundy he was annoying for rambling surely had never met Ranboo. The fox was tapping his paw against the floor by the time Ranboo finished explaining.

‘So Tubbo knows I have a bunker’ Fundy though out loud

‘Yeah’ Ranboo answered unprompted

‘Does anyone else know I disappeared yesterday and is the ghost still in your house?’ Fundy asked

‘Hmmm’ Ranboo through ‘ Ghostbur said he was going to ask Quackity for help and then he disappeared, I haven’t seen him since’ 

Great! His father had gone around telling people about his awful night and nobody knew where he was now. The ghost most probably would appear the moment Fundy stood outside. 

He sighed frustrated and pinched the bridge of his nose with his hands.

‘Why are you in a cold bunker?’ Ranboo asked looking around 

Fundy picked up his jacket and put it back on. ‘No reason’ he answered whilst passing a hand through his hair and promptly putting his hat again

‘There must be a reason’ the enderman argued

‘Nope. Not reason at all’ Fundy said making the bed, exasperation clear

‘You are a bad liar’

Fundy lifted his arms in indignation before he turned around and pointed’ at Ranboo ‘Yes I am a bad liar. I don’t want to talk about this so no more questions okay?’

Ranboo just blinked back at him. The ginger huffed and walked toward the door jumping precisely and squishing half his body in the tiny space before pushing on the other side with his hands. 

And then he was back in the hall.

He sighed and picked up his hat again before walking to the stairs. Even if people knew about the bunker he still valued the things he had there and a broken closed piston door was more likely to deter anyone from trying to break in-

‘Why are you sneaking through a small gap?’ Ranboo asked after he materializing behind Fundy

The fox yelped loudly before turning around to meet Ranboo’s face who had the ghost of a smile on it. Fundy decided it was not worth it.

‘The door broke’ He said before making the second leap of the day and crawling into the top space, but the moment he took the torch from the piston door he remembered. He had talked with Iskall and he was going to Hermitcrat today. Oh.

He crawled back out the space to find Ranboo staring at him.

‘What?’ Fundy asked 

‘Do you want to come for breakfast? Nikki baked a loaf of bread and she was preparing hot chocolate too’ Ranboo said smiling

Fundy just blinked back at him

‘Is that no?’ 

The fox needed to focus, this was nice and all but he was making a trip out of the world in possibly less than 12 hours, he should be packing things not thinking about breakfast. Besides with all the commotion yesterday more people would ask his whereabouts making everything harder and- 

His stomach growled, betraying him. He let out a sigh.

‘Is a yes’

Ranboo smiled slightly and placed a hand on his shoulder and in a flash they were both in Nikki’s living room. 

‘Nikki I found him!’ Ranboo announced loudly 

Sounds from the kitchen were quickly followed by Nikki running up to Fundy and hugging him. It took him by surprise but he quickly hugged her back. 

‘Hey Nikki’ 

‘We were so worried!’ She said, breaking the hug appart ‘What happened?’

Fundy sighed

‘Ranboo said there would be breakfast so maybe I can tell you over some toasts?’ Fundy asked, a bit hesitant

‘Of course you can!’ Nikki assured him with a smile.

Fundy sat down with the siblings to enjoy a quiet morning over freshly baked bread and hot chocolate. It did help him a lot but stirred the guilt of leaving. It had seemed like a fine idea the previous night but now sitting down with his friends he felt guilty for leaving since they would have to stay and face whatever happened in his absence. 

The thought soured his mood and Nikki quickly catched him trying to contain his tears, she asked about it. An the sincer worry on her face left Fundy no option but to confess.  
Determined to not break down again in less than 12 hours, Fundy calmed down at the best of his abilities and he summarized all the events of the previous night. 

He revealed his relationship with Dream since the wedding was the most imminent factor for his departure and to his surprise Nikki hugged him, rubbing soothing circles in his back

‘Oh Fundy’ she said voice full of empathy

He tried to not break down crying again but Ranboo put a single hand on his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic look and that broke him. 

‘I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m so sorry… I know what he is done and still-’

‘Shhhh’ Nikki eased him before breaking the hug to look at him in the face ‘Fundy is okay’

‘Is not okay!’ 

‘You have tried to dissuade him, right?’

Fundy nooded, lips wobbling

‘Then you did your best. I think that no one in this situation can really do more’ Nikki concluded

Fundy sighed. ‘I still don’t deserve to go. What if you guys end up paying?’ Fundy asked looking outside the window to avoid the stare of the siblings.

‘Quackity’s attempt of rebellion didn’t work, but if we bunker up we should be alright. Tubbo even managed to find Tommy and he has gone to visit him frequently’ Ranboo recounted ‘I think we can hang for some weeks, and who knows, maybe this Hermit’s could be willing to help us’ he said offhandedly. 

Fundy’s ears perked up. He hadn’t thought about it. Iskall was willing to help him but perhaps with enough convincing Iskall could help them. All of them. 

‘There could be a chance’ Nikki echoed the words of her brother and she looked right at Fundy 

Fundy wiped his tears and nodded. He was going. No doubts left, he stood up.

‘I have told you already but I’m leaving a note just in case’

‘I’ll grab you a notebook’ Ranboo said before poofing out of existence

‘Fundy’ Nikki said standing up too

‘Don’t worry Nikki’ he sayed. A determined look on his face

‘I’m not worried… is just… Is not your obligation to save all of us’ she said, with a serious face but a gentle voice ‘Ranboo’s idea could work but worlds meddling in others world politics is something serious’ She approached the fox again and put a hand on his shoulder ‘Is okay if you can’t get help. We can take care of ourselfs’ She assured him squishing his shoulder lightly

‘Nikki’ fundy said

‘Take care of yourself’ she said with a smile

Ranboo then materialized again in front of them with pen and notebook at hand 

‘After the note what are you going to do?’ he asked the fox

‘I’m packing and then I’m going the furthest away I can go to… teleport I suppose’

‘You are not using the hub?’ Nikki asked 

‘Apparently not, the instructions where, leave a note, get sunglasses and go as far as you can go’ Fundy answered

Both ender siblings glanced at each other seemingly interchanging unspoken words before looking back at Fundy who understandably got worried

‘What?’ he asked concerned

‘We don’t know of anyone being able to teleport that far’ Ranboo clarified ‘Not even a full enderman could go that far in just a single teleportation’

Fundy swallowed a bit getting nervous again 

‘But!’ Nikki interrupted to try and calm down her friend ‘They are Hermits, they probably have a way since they live so far out’

Fundy wasn’t convinced but he had to trust this would work. They needed help and he was the only way of reaching it.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile on another side of the land, Tommy was busing carrying sticks. He had gotten bored and he was determined to make his tent bigger, if not for comfort maybe just to distract himself from the humming man sitting in his camp. 

Dream was happily lounging in the grass, staring at the sky and humming a song for himself. He was aware that Tommy was just biding time to stay away from him but he was happy to sit around and wait. 

After putting down Quackity’s revolt nothing much had happened and everyone seemed to be quiet. Some snide remarks about Techno had been shared between the citizens but Dream knew no one would really go after him after what had happened. And even if they did no one knew where the pig hybrid had gone.

It seemed all was going to plan, all that was left was to convince Tommy definitely to leave his rebellious nature and everything would go back to normal. Back when everyone did their own thing and everyone hung together without conflict. 

Dream sighed, as much as he relished in the chaos, he missed the days where his world was quiet and peaceful. A safe haven for him and his friends to get away from the world. None of this stupid struggle for power. Maybe then he could make his peace with everyone since he had allowed them to stay in the first place to give them a home away from home. 

That future wasn’t far so he relished in that until the child came back.

‘You are still here?’ Tommy asked 

‘Yup! Still here!’ Dream answered still laying down

‘I’m not doing anything today, why don’t you leave?’

Dream sat down to look at Tommy, placing his hands where his cheeks would be if the mask wasn’t in the way 

‘I thought you were lonely! I’m accompanying you!’ he answered on a cheery tone

Tommy just glared at him 

‘Whatever. You are so fucking weird’ the teenager remarked ‘ I just came back to leave this wood here!’ he announced before dropping the sticks unceremoniously in the ground and heading back to the forest

‘Aww you are leaving so soo-’ Dream was interrupted by a loud alert of his communicator. 

He looked at it directly and saw it was a warning from his admin panel. 

‘What?’ he asked under his breath, quickly retrieving the mobile access to his panels from his inventory, slamming it into the memory slot of his communicator that instantly changed display and projected a holographic screen full of information.

There was an alert going on related to the world barrier. But when Dream went to check it out it disappeared.

‘Huh’ was all Dream said, projecting a different screen to look at the information log.  
He read the report of the day and found the latest alert marked as ‘unknown object has been detected near the world barrier, 4̸̝͓̊̏̃͜,̸̘̤͋̕͘͝9̴̗͗̽-̵̛̼̙̃/̷̬̯̮͌̎͊&̷̲̮͍̭̀́̓̏0̵̫͙͚̫̍̇0̴̧͚̺̓͐͌͝0̸̦͖̼̎̇0̶͎̘̼̦͐͂̈́̑0̸̭͑0̴̣͙͉̆͊̈́̔0̶̪̗͔̈̌͐̅0̸̢̣͙̐-̷̼͉͙̆͝ ̵͕̫̜͋̀̃͜ ̵̢̦̯̥͒́̎ ̸̧̛̇̿ ̵̥̕3̵̨̼́2̴̧̼͈͉̚ ̴̡̳͚̭̅͐͒̈ᒲ̶̪̉̄͗ ̶̢͗͗͝ͅ/̵̼̓̐͝͠0̵̈ͅ.̸̱̤̋̈́̍̀0̸̢̅0̵̼͙̥̎̃-̷͎̳̇̿̆/̶̢̩̱̍̌̈́!̸̼̲̎0̵̼̃0̶̬̭̈́͘0̸̬̇͝0̵̱̣̰͝0̵̛̳̳͕̻̈͐0̶̞̌2̸͙̜̓ ̵̩͇̞͒ᒲ̸̗͘ meters away’ 

Dream though nothing about it since his display had gotten quite damaged with all the battles he had gone into, and the proximity sensors usually failed when a fast travelling objects crossed near their planet at high velocities. The last time he had seen an alert like this a brief investigation revealed a comet had passed nearby and had triggered the alert. 

He really needed to adjust the sensibility of those things.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After finishing breakfast, packing his things and some cookies and extra armour the siblings gave him, Fundy headed to the Nether with Ranboo and both headed to the east. 

Ranboo teleported them as far as he could go and they stopped their journey when the Enderman reached his limit, he had exhausted almost all his energy and he had just enough to get back home. 

Fundy built a portal back to the overworld and said his final goodbyes to his friend who dematerialized in front of him. 

The fox lit the portal and stepped in, a gigantic mesa biome greeting him with asphyxiating heat. 

‘Why couldn’t it be a snow biome?’ he protested, cheeking his inventory to be sure he had brought everything he needed. Clothes, sword, axe, picaxe, cookies, some spare diamonds and emeralds he absolutely didn’t steal from Sam, extra armour, a bed and the sunglasses Iskall requested. 

Seeing as he had nothing else to do to stall for time he broke the frame of the Nether portal and stepped ahead looking at the coordinates his gps gave him

‘-11,346 - 834’ it read.

They had gone so far away. Poor Ranboo he was probably going to stay in bed for a day or two recovering.

Fundy bit the inside of his cheek when he thought of that momentarily before shaking himself a bit to prepare. 

He texted Iskall 

Fundy: hey Iskall! How are you?

In just a couple of minutes his communicator pinged back with a message

Iskall: Hallo!

Iskall: I’m doing amazing! I already got a room set for you in my Omega Tree of Doom!!

Fundy smiled at that

Fundy: Awesome. Thanks again

Iskall: don’t thank me yet! We have to get you here first! Are you ready?

Fundy: yup. And also absolutely terrified

Iskall: relax it will be fine. Just call Grian! I’ll see you in a couple of minutes!

With that Fundy sighed. This was really it huh?

He closed the chat and looked over his contact list, searching for the builders number. Once he found it, his finger lingered over the call button. He looked around and sighed. 

Here goes nothing. 

He hit called and placed his communicator against his ear. It was a couple of terrifying seconds of silence.

‘Hey!’ a cheery voice greeted from the other side of the call

‘Hi’ Fundy answered timidly

‘I suppose Iskall told you already but. I’m Grian! And I’ll be your interplanetary taxi of sorts!’ the builder said. Cheeriness never leaving his voice

It did help Fundy calm down a bit

‘Yeah Iskall explained that, but they didn’t really explained it in details’

‘Don’t worry about details, leave it to me’ Grian said confidently ‘you are in good hands’

Fundy gulped a bit just out of nervousness

‘I do trust you… is just… I’m kind of terrified’ Fundy admitted

‘Don’t worry it won’t take more than ten minutes’ Grian assured him

Fundy sighed ‘So… what do I do?’

‘Give me your coordinates’

‘-11,346 - 834’

‘Oh you are far from spawn. Perfect’ the builder commented ‘are you in an open place?’

‘I’m on a mesa biome’

‘Great! This will be easy then’ 

Fundy heard a shushed conversation on the other side of the call before Grian addressed him again

‘Fundy’ 

‘Yes?’ the fox asked nervously at the mention of his name

‘Do you have any items with you?’

‘Yeah’

‘Do you have any on your hotbar?’

‘Yes’

‘Save everything in deep storage. The teleportation could mess with the information of your items and you could lose them. Save everything in your storage and dismiss it, same as your hotbar’

Fundy grew anxious again. How were they going to teleport that it could mess with the quantum state of objects in his hotbar?

Still he did as Grian told him.

‘O-okay. I did it’

‘Perfect. Now what is going to happen is that I will teleport to your world, it might take a minute or two so don’t panic since I can’t use my communicator. Once I’m there I’ll make sure we can avoid the world barrier and I’ll teleport us back. Everything clear?

Fundy was getting anxious by the minute

‘Yes’

‘Good. Did Iskall tell you to bring sunglasses?’

‘They did’

‘Put them on. Don’t want you getting blinded by the light’

Fundy obeyed.

‘Did you put them on?’ Grian asked

‘Yes’ 

‘Good. The light might still be too bright and it will be quite disorientating but the moment we get back we have everything alredy set up in spawn. So no worries okay?’

‘Okay’ Fundy said, worrying severily 

‘Good, I’m gonna hang up and I’ll see you in a couple of minutes’

‘Alright’

‘And Fundy?’ 

‘Y-yes?’

‘You are about to see some weird things, don’t question them okay?’ Grian said voice quite serious, sending a cold chill down Fundy’s spine out of fear of what that could mean 

‘O-okay’ 

‘Good’ 

And with that the call disconnected. 

Fundy waited in silent terror, unsure of what to expect. The anticipation and terror mixed and left him frozen, waiting for something. Anything to happen. Everything was way too quiet and he had a last moment of doubt.

He could probably go back, fix the frame of the nether portal and hide. 

But the moment he thought that he saw a strange purple light dance in the sky. It was a sunny, clear day and it was perfectly visible despite being so small, it looked as if the soft wind was making it drift with it’s movements being slow and graceful.

And it immediately disappeard. 

Fundy held his breath as if expecting something when a figure popped into existence in front of him, light almost blinding and it was gone. 

Fundy stayed with his eyes closed for a moment fearing to open them

‘Hey Fundy!’ Said the voice he had heard on call now standing in front of him

Fundy opened his eyes to see a short blond with blue eyes, a red sweater and black jeans smiling at him. 

Huh. He didn’t expect the builder to be so short 

‘Hi… you spooked me’ he answered

The blond grinned at that ‘Yup! tends to happen’ 

‘How did you-’ Fundy was going to ask when Grian grabbed his arm 

‘Don’t worry about it!’ he said extending purple wings Fundy was sure weren’t there a second ago

Fundy just looked at him with plates for eyes behind the sunglasses. The blond did had an odd lilac glow around him.

Grian smiled at him and let his arm go, he then immediately took something out the pocket of his sweater. 

‘I’m sorry I’m kind of in a rush but is for safety’ he explained approaching Fundy again and grabbing the collar of his jacket’

‘What are you-’ Fundy tried to ask when Grian backed away from him

‘There! Welcome to Hermitcraft!’ the blond said still with a smile on his face

Fundy looked down and saw a rectangular pin with the HC letters engraved in silver and gold. This was happening. 

When he looked up he was facing Grian’s back. He had a moment to look at the wings that seemed to be made of pure light and they also didn’t look as if they were truly attached to the builder. Who right now was glowing even brighter with that lilac aura. 

‘There is a chip inside the pin to pair your communicator with our database once we get there’ Grian explained while doing weird motions with his hands Fundy couldn’t really see because the wings eclipsed his vision.

However he did saw galactic glyphs appear in thin air for a brief moment. It was End magic then. 

‘For now we have to go, turn off your communicator’ Grian instructed, turning around now sporting a second pair of eyes just below where his blue eyes had been. All four pupils glowed purple. 

Fundy almost fainted right there, instead he just stared silently and did as told

‘Good!’ Grian said, grabbing Fundy by both arms ‘Close your eyes!’

Fundy did, not before watching how an extra pair of wings appeared in the builders back. 

‘I know this is really unsettling’ Grian admitted, glow becoming so strong that Fundy could see it even with his eyes closed 

‘But we don’t have to talk about it ever again so don’t worry’ Grian said ‘Stay still, it will take just a second’ 

Fundy could hear magic glyphs being summoned and rapidly disappearing. It was curious, the feeling similar to the cold that came out of End portals.The same crispy and static air that the endermen brought with them and also- the sound of water?

‘Welcome to Hermitcraft Fundy!’ Grian said 

All sensations came back to his body and he realized he was currently standing on a small island in the middle of the sea. He opened his eyes just to see Grian grinning, no extra eyes or wings to be seen. 

Fundy looked around and saw a platform waiting for them at their left and in the distance he managed to see the outline of buildings on an island. 

He looked in awe. 

‘Hey Fundy let’s get you settled in’ Grian said letting go of one of his arms and pulling him by the other to the platform

Fundy just followed, still confused and amazed. 

Grian definitely saw that, as the platform started to descend he said ‘you can take off the sunglasses’

Fundy did, realising his hands worked and that he was currently there in Hermitcraft.

‘This is still real life’ he said absentmindedly 

‘It sure is pal’ a voice Fundy knew well replied so he looked around to find it’s owner. 

The platform reached the bottom revealing a cozy place that looked like a mix between a library and a lobby and Fundy saw the owner of the voice.

Iskall themselves stood right there in the lobby smiling ‘Hello Fundy’ they said

Fundy didn’t even think before throwing himself to hug Iskall, who hugged him right back. Iskall laughed loudly at that.

‘Oof! don’t knock me over’ said the cyborg jokingly

Fundy just stayed there, hugging the person that had allowed him to come here. The person that had extended their hand to him. If he wasn’t still confused and in shock he would be crying but all he did was stay there. Iskall rubbing soothing circles on his back

‘You made it’ they said gently, still smiling

‘Aww that’s so cute’ Grian said failing to hide the endearment in his voice while he walked to another side of the lobby to retrieve something 

‘I agree’ said a third voice, approaching as well

Fundy looked up from Iskall’s hug to see the newcomer that had arrived just to be met with the sight of an extremely tall man in futuristic armour painted yellow with black stripes as if it were a bee. Helmet yellow with purple visor concealed all his face aside from his eyes. And by the looks of it they were smiling.

‘Hello Fundy’ said the tall man. Voice incredibly soft in comparison to his menacing appearance 

‘Hi’ Fundy greeted softly, still holding Iskall as if he was a small kitten clinging to their mom

Iskall noticed that and laughed ‘Don’t worry about X he is a complete derp, he wouldn’t hurt a bee’

‘Hey! that 's not true!’ the man in armour complained in a clear joke manner 

‘Yeah! Don’t you go accusing Beesuma of crimes against his own kind!’ Grian joked back pointing at Iskall

Iskall just laughed in response.

Fundy just stared at the situation and he let go of Iskall, Grian then talked to him fake whispering

‘I would be careful if I were you Fundy. Iskall is a troll, you can always tell me or X if you need any rescuing’ 

Xisuma chuckled lightly at that

‘Me?!’ Iskall asked in joke offense ‘Look who's talking!’

‘Don’t listen to them Fundy!’ Grian said

‘Stay away from him!!’ Iskall replied

Both friends fell into friendly banter after that

Fundy settled for being quiet. He had a smile on his face just looking at the antics. He had seen a lot of weird things today so he appreciated the sense of normalcy. Everything would be alright.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello friends! I've been reading all your comments and all of you are so nice!! Thank you so much!
> 
> This chapter is a tad bit shorter than the ones I usually writte but finals week is kicking my butt and I didn't want to leave you with nothing for an entire week so have this quite slow chapter!
> 
> This is the start of a very long love letter to Hermitcraft so any of you that are here for Fundy are going to start learning more about Hermitcraft! those who are here for the Hermits I hope you catch all the refereces :3
> 
> Last thing! Lore elements from my own lore will start to pop out like the fact that respawning is not something automatic and requires an entire infraestracture of technology and data. If you have any questions regarding lore I would be more than glad to answer :3
> 
> Thank you once again and enjoy the chapter!
> 
> CW. Cussing

As always setting spawn in a new world was a lengthy process but thankfully Fundy was escaned and integrated into the database quickly. It did mean that his information log would show he had last set spawn in Hermitcraft but Xisuma argued that reaching those logs wasn’t easy and Grian quickly clarified that even if Dream found them there was no way he could enter their world.

Considering the very strange things Fundy had witnessed up until that point and the grin the blond gave him while explaining how unreachable the world was, he decided to trust him, not daring to ask what all the ‘End magic business’ had been about.

And besides he had bigger problems at hand, like the fact that he would need an elytra at all times to even be able to reach some buildings in the world. He had never used one before, not even in his solo admin testing days and now he would have to fly left and right if he wanted to get to see anything.

Great.

‘Oh I can train him no problem!’ Grian said excitedly

‘I don’t think that is a good idea’ Xisuma was quick to say

‘It will be fine! Afterall I taught Bdubs how to fly and he is doing amazing’ the builder said proud of himself.

At that Iskall and Xisuma exchanged a quick look of doubt before looking back at the builder and the fox.

‘Yeah no we don’t need him crashing on the first day, he is sticking with me’ Iskall said while placing a hand on Fundy’s head.

It was a really small gesture but Fundy almost squeaked at the surprise. 

Iskall immediately felt him flinch and retracted their hand, Grian and Xisuma glaring at the cyborg as if they had poured lava on Fundy’s head

‘I am so sorry! I did it without thinking!’ They were quick to apologize, absolutely mortified

‘No! No is okay!’ Fundy answered ‘it just took me by surprise that’s all. But is okay really’ he said with a reassuring smile

It had been odd. The only person that had done that was his dad, back when he was a little kid, and yet it had felt comforting even if he had flinched due to the surprise.

All three hermits still looked slightly concerned but they quickly let it go to focus back on their conversation.

‘I trust you two to sort it out, I have some things to look after and I need to make sure Fundy’s neural map and spawn have been set up correctly’ Xisuma said ‘be careful’ 

‘Of course’ Iskall replied

‘Don’t worry X-Eye-zuma he is in good hands!’ Grian said grinning again

The admin just sighed and rolled his shoulders in a quiet chuckle

‘Well at least I’ll be worrying for one less thing’ he said before looking at Fundy and gently laying a gloved hand on his shoulder

‘Hope you have a good stay. You can always call me if you need anything, potions, honey, a tea break from those two’ Xisuma said while the other two groaned or huffed in complain to his absolute delight 

‘I’ll be right there to solve it, as well as any other Hermit’ he concluded

‘Thank you for letting me stay’ Fundy said, looking at the admin that just smiled in return. Even with that helmet he was surprisingly expressive.

‘Behave you two’ Xisuma said while approaching the platform 

‘Sure dude’ Iskall said rolling their eye.

‘Bye X!’ Grian cheerfully waived their admin goodbye

Xisuma gave a last nod before opening the wings in his back and taking off. Fundy noted for a moment that the wings were actually bee wings instead of an elytra. So maybe the bee themed armour was not just for show.

‘What do you think Fundy?’ Grian asked the ginger bringing him back from his momentary distraction 

‘I got distracted, what did you ask?’ He said blinking and looking back at them

‘I proposed going for breakfast first before we do any training’ Iskall said

Wait, breakfast? How much was the time difference between the two worlds?  
Fundy took his communicator now with an HC logo displayed in his background and now displaying local time. 6:49 am

‘I didn’t know it was this early!’ Fundy said, ears flattening against his head 

But before he could apologize for making the Hermits wake up so early Grian interrupted

‘Most of us don’t have a stable sleeping schedule so it really isn’t early or late… is just time for breakfast!’ 

Fundy blinked and looked at Iskall for confirmation

‘Yeah we should go for cookies!’ They said smiling

‘Race you to Lookie Lookie at my Cookie!’ The blond said excitedly putting a hand over Fundy’s shoulder

‘Grian wait!’- Iskall tried to say

But in a flash Fundy was standing in front of a gigantic building made to look like a cake. Had they teleported? He looked back at Grian that had purple particles dissipating fast around him but nothing else looked weird.

‘I promise that’s the last teletransportation of the day! After this is just elytra for you’ Grian said smiling before opening the door of the gigant cake.

Fundy stood there, the builder was probably never going to answer how he did that but he still considered asking. And then he looked around and considered changing his question.

The cake looking building was adjacent to a gigantic building made to look like a bookshelf, at his right he could see a distant island made of terracotta with a giant dinosaur skull on one of it’s side and if he squinted he could also see what appeared to be a blimp completely made out of nether materials.

He turned around and saw at his left an alleyway made of various old buildings made in bricks and also an… ice shop?

He stepped in the road and walked further. Yeah it was an ice shop.

Why would someone sell ice? And who would even buy it?

Apparently the Hermits considering they had a whole shop for ice. Sure why not if they could build all of this they could buy ice. He heard rockets get near and turned around just to see Iskall land in front of the cake building.

‘Yo Fundy!’ -they waved at him

The fox looked at the massive white concrete building behind the cyborg while he approached. Had they really built all of this?  
Was this a city?

‘Hey Iskall where are we?’ Fundy asked while approaching them

‘We are in the shopping district!’ They answered while un-equipping their elytra  
‘I’ll give you a tour later’ 

Said that they approached the door and opened it waiting for Fundy to enter.

Fundy gave a last look before entering the chocolate scented building and he stopped in his tracks admiring the interior. Everything was made in dark oak wood and made to look like a chocolate bar. The counter and multiple cabinets displaying orderly all the products, all polished and sculpted to enhance the look of the place. 

Between the look and the chocolate scent Fundy would have tried taking a bite out of the main counter to test if it truly was just wood. But he stopped when he saw Grian on top of said counter rummaging through the cabinets

‘That was awful!’ Iskall complained to Grian ‘you cheated!’

‘Is not cheating! I was just helping out Fundy!’ Grian said with halve his arm on the barrel labeled as ‘cookies’

‘Whatever! Get down here you are going to finish them!’ The cyborg said while approaching Grian and taking a fistful of his red sweater with his cybernetic hand. 

‘I already left some for breakfast on one of the tables! Calm down! I’m just reaching for broken ones and crumbs for Professor Beak!’ Grian explained before turning around to look at Iskall.

‘Besides there is another full barrel right there’ the blond gesture wildly to the barrel just directly at Fundy’s left

‘You sir are just mad I won the race!’ Grian said, accusing Iskall before getting down the counter.

Iskall just allowed an annoyed huff escape them while they followed the blond with his eyes ‘ you teleported! That’s cheating!’ 

Grian stopped in his tracks and very eloquently stuck his tongue out to Iskall who in return gasped offended.

Fundy smiled at the scene still standing at the side of the counter

Iskall just gave a friendly punch to Grian in the arm making the blond laugh, and then they looked back to Fundy ‘let’s get some breakfast’

‘Oh I already had breakfast’ Fundy answered politely

‘Nonsense! Come enjoy cookies!’ Grian invited him already sitting down at a table that also looked as if it was made out of chocolates.

To complete the whole look of the place the cushions of the seats were made to look like cake, Fundy noted.

He ended up sitting across the two hermits that offered him hot chocolate and cookies but he declined. Choosing to sit with them and listen to their quiet conversation. It was a calm morning despite all the frantic actions of early.

Fundy tuned out their conversation for a bit. Sinking a bit further on the comfortable seat and just existing there. In a cafe made to look like a giant cake, full of furniture that looked like chocolate.

He for maybe the first time in months allowed himself to relax. Both Hermits sitting across him saw the lulling effect the cozy place had on the fox and they let him be while they talked over cookies and hot chocolate. 

Fundy closed his eyes for a moment. Just to see if he could catch again the sound of the distant waves that surrounded the island. It was an almost silent symphony that still managed to get to his ears. Oh how much had he missed the sea trapped in that gigant obsidian box. Maybe if he was lucky the Hermits would let him go fishing for a day. He would have to ask Iskall as the cyborg looked to have taken it upon themselves to be responsible for him.

Fundy opened his eyes and looked at the people in front of him. 

Maybe he was terribly desperate for some friends that knew what they were doing but Fundy could admit he had a fond spot for the two Hermits talking in front of him. 

But expressing that would have been too cheesy for him so instead he looked back to the furniture. Still amazed how all the dark wood had been worked to resemble chocolate bars. It was a cute idea for a cafe.

‘Nikki would love this place’ he thought out loud, making Grian and Iskall pause their conversation to look at him

‘Oh sorry! I was just thinking of a friend’ the fox explained while shuffling with his paws 

‘she is a baker and she has her own bakery and I think she would find all of this decoration really cute’ he said smilling a tad nervous for having intereumpted the two friends with a stupid though 

‘They are amazing right!’ Iskall replied ‘They look like chocolate bars! 

‘Keralis has his way with furniture’ Grian asked ‘maybe I should contract him to get the inside of my mansion furnished’ 

‘Maybe’ Iskall said, returning his attention to Fundy ‘ but if you think your friend would want some furniture like this maybe if you talk with Keralis he could give you the blueprints for all of them’ 

Fundy just made a polite face he hoped would hide the sudden confusion he faced. 

‘Keralis is the owner of the shop’ The builder clarified while reaching for one of the last cookies in the plate.

‘he built the whole thing and he made the furniture’ Grian explained and then he faced Iskall ‘ and he won’t give you the blueprints. He doesn't do free stuff’ 

‘Oh yeah you are right’ Iskall remarked

‘Well for this stuff’ Fundy said, gaining the attention back of the two Hermits ‘ Is fair he charges something, but I’d be glad to pay! would be unfair to go on vacations and not get gifts for my friends’

Grian nodded while munching his cookie.

‘We can go talk to him later if you’d like’ Iskall offered

‘Oh no there is no rush’ Fundy answered back ‘Is something I will do but just not today’

‘Long day?’ They asked already knowing the answer

‘A bit. Yes’

‘If you’d like to go back to my base so you can settle in your room and sleep for the day after the elytra training we can do that’ Iskall assured him

Fundy smiled in return. He had slept enough but he wouldn’t complain if he could sleep at least 12 hours more in a less humid place.

‘Oh! Talking about Keralis!’ Grian said. Cookie already gone ‘ Do you have any diamonds with you?’ He asked the fox

‘Yup I have some’ 

‘Good because that’s the only currency we use’ Grian said ‘diamonds and also IOU’s but those are a bad idea so don’t use them’ Grian quickly added

‘An… IOU?’ Fundy asked

‘Basically favors. An ‘I owe you one’’ Iskall said ‘don’t negotiate with them… you might end up having to grind resources for someone or as bait for phantoms’

‘Or you could lose a tag game’ Grian joked to Iskall’s dismay, they only rolled their eye at the builder that giggled in return 

Fundy oppened his inventory checking the diamonds he had brought

‘Yup I have 30 diamonds’ 

‘Only 30?’ Iskall asked before reaching for their inventory ‘Things are a tad pricey here I can give you some pocket money if you want to’

Fundy considered it. It wasn’t a bad deal and he hadn’t asked for it so he would just be accepting Iskall’s offer.

‘That would be great’ he replied

Iskall looked through their inventory before retrieving the shiny rocks 

‘Here’ They said while handing them to Fundy.

Who saw 192 diamonds, or three complete stacks, appear on it.

His jaw dropped before he could say anything.

‘That should cover you for two weeks’ Iskall said nonchalant 

Fundy was sure that if he had been drinking hot chocolate he would have spat it out and also choked on it all at the same time.

Had Iskall just called three stacks of diamonds pocket money?

What?

‘How…. how much money do you guys have?’ Fundy asked in disbelief, still staring at his inventory.

‘Eh just a bit’ Iskall said ‘ I’m still far from my 10 thousand objective’ 

If Fundy jaw could fall even more it would have. Grian apparently realized that

‘In comparison to Keralis we are poor. That man bought one single rotten flesh from me for two stacks of diamonds. He almost gave me three before I stopped him’ the blond said smiling.

Fundy just sat there stunned. His brain malfunctioned . Suddenly the fact they had a whole sector made up of shops made sense. He had known the Hermits would be wealthy but this was absolutely ridiculous. 

‘What the actual fuck?’ He whispered so lightly Grian and Iskall almost didn’t catch it.

Emphasis on the almost. Grian just laughed

‘Iskall! Iskall! we should show him the cinnamon shop!’ He said excitedly 

‘I think he has had enough for today’ Iskall said trying not to smile

‘What is the cinnamon shop?’ Fundy asked now terrorized by this people

Grian quickly swiped the remaining cookies on his inventory while Iskall gave another sip to their hot chocolate.

‘Is a cinnamon shop! That sells cinnamon buns!’ The blond explained. And by his tone Fundy knew that the shop in fact didn’t sell cinnamon buns.

‘Slow down dude. We should talk about teaching Fundy how to use an elytra so he can go wherever he wants’ Iskall said trying to calm their friend

‘We can do that at the cinnamon shop! let 's go!’ He said almost pushing the cyborg out of the way 

After more futile attempts from Iskall to contain the small builder in the cake shop, they walked out across the paths. Fundy staring intently at all the buildings they passed. All made in a different style, and all looked very professional. The so-called ‘quartz shop’ in the middle of the area even had end crystals as decoration.

‘Who builds these things?’ He asked absentmindedly

‘All of us’ Iskall replied ‘if you want to set a shop you buy the land, you build it, you stock it and you collect the profits’

‘If you want to see the best shop in the whole district you should visit my barge!’ Grian interrupted proudly 

‘What do you sell?’ Fundy asked the builder

‘Anything you don’t want to get for yourself!’ He replied ‘You can get name tags, lamps, torches, wood, tnt, sand, gravel, adventure quests’ 

‘And dirt. He also sells dirt’ Iskall added

‘And people buy it!’ Grian replied

‘Why would you buy dirt?’ Fundy asked

‘For terraforming of course!’ Grian told him before stopping in front of the famous cinnamon shop 

‘I feel like I’m going to hate this’ Fundy said with a nervous but excited energy in his voice

‘That is a way to put it’ Iskall answered smiling

Fundy waited for Grian to open the door but the blond just looked at him right back. So he stepped forward and pushed the door just to enter and freeze in place.

‘What the fuck’ he said loudly this time. Hearing the two Hermits behind him laugh at his reaction. He turned around.

‘Who is crazy enough to do this?!’ He said pointing at the conveyor belt made of at least 12 ancient debri.

Grian just laughed harder while Iskall approached 

‘Is not just this’ the cyborg replied taking a pickaxe out of their inventory and mining one of the debri and then pressing a button that pushed another ancient debri forward 

‘Is like this for all of these’

Fundy just stood there. Confused, amazed and possibly terrified. He thought the ice shop was weird but they had a shop for ancient debri? That they called ‘The cinnamon Shop’? 

No wonder three stacks of diamonds was just pocket money for them!

‘You can come on a shopping spree anytime you’d like’ Iskall told him

‘Why do you guys pay for this?! Why don’t you just take it?!’ Fundy asked sincerely confused

‘Because that would be rude’ Grian explained

Fundy stood there waiting for any other explanation but he received none. 

‘You just work… with an honour code?’

‘Yeah. Basically’ Iskall answered this time

‘I don’t get it’ Fundy said

He was used to stealing and losing his stuff. He had learned to trade items to survive and now he just… stumbled into a stable economy?

Iskall probably saw the machinery of his mind move because once again they approached him and laid a gentle hand on top of his head. Fundy didn’t flinch this time.

‘Don’t think too much about it. We took a detour when we should focus on teaching you how to use an elytra’ they said

Fundy just stood there, not quite thinking but just enjoying the gentle gesture.

‘Oh no Iskall we broke him’ Grian said between joking and serious

‘No is fine...is just… well is something new that’s all’ he explained to ease the brief panic that crossed Grian’s eyes ‘just… you are a bunch of crazy people’ he said offering the tiniest of smiles

‘That we are’ Iskall said, now patting Fundy’s back twice before letting go of him ‘and part of that craziness is why you need to be able to use an elytra without getting pancaked on the first wall you come across’

‘Okay… where are we practicing?’ Fundy asked

‘On the sea!’ Grian said before heading out the store.

Fundy looked at him and then he looked at Iskall that gave him an encouraging nod. 

It had been some crazy first hours and surely more was bound to come. But Fundy decided this was a type of crazy he was willing to put up with.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Everyone! thanks once again for all your comments! They are super motivating and they keep me going! :3
> 
> Sorry for dissapearing for a week but finals week really did kick my butt and I was exhausted afterwards. But now I'm back!!
> 
> This chapter is kind of a mess but it is here! And I hope you enjoy it regardless
> 
> Tw: blood, injury and undertones of manipulation and abuse

‘Hello Quackity!’ Ghostbur greeted the man that just screamed out of fear for being startled, dropping all the materials he had in his arms

‘What the hell man?!’ He said looking back angry at the ghost

‘Oh sorry I didn’t meant to scare you’ Ghostbur said looking as Quackity picked up the blackstone blocks he had dropped

‘Then stop appearing out of nowhere!’ Quackity demanded

‘I promise I won’t do it again is just a bit of an emergency today’ the ghost explained ‘have you seen Fundy?’ He asked quite concerned

‘No I haven’t seen him since the cabinet meeting yesterday’ Quackity admitted ‘maybe Tubbo knows because he just shut me down for my attempt of rebellion and I left earlier’ Clearly he was still bitter about it 

‘No I already asked Tubbo’ Wilbur said, a quite sad tone gaining traction on his usually soft voice 

‘Well I don’t know! Dream still hasn’t taken down this stupid walls so he must be inside L’Manberg’ Quackity said dismissively while walking away. Clearly preoccupied with his own project.

Wilbur just floated in place, watching the young man walk away, back into his blackstone pyramid.

He had asked everyone in the small country and nobody had given him any information about his son. The ghost considered his options. It wasn’t unusual for Fundy to be gone for days at a time. But the fact he was so upset that he jumped out a window to run away troubled him. 

If he was that upset then he shouldn’t be alone. 

He was probably sad and alone.

‘I’ll find you champ. Don’t worry’ Ghostbur said to no one in particular while leaving to search the badlands. 

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————  
‘GRIAN!’ Fundy’s screams could be heard even over the waves

The blond immediately closed his elytra and fell faster, reaching the plummeting fox and grabbing him by the arms, quickly deploying his elytra at the last second and gliding over the sea, low enough for Fundy’s paws to get soaked

‘Hey!’ The ginger protested

Grian just laughed before returning to the small platform they had built in the middle of the sea. He gently let go of Fundy and landed right besides him. 

‘I don’t get what happened’ Fundy complained looking at the Elytra Iskall had ‘permanently lent’ to him for any holes or tears that might have caused his fall. 

‘You made a sharp turn and that closed your elytra. And then you didn’t manage to open it again to glide so you fell’ Grian explained

‘What do I do if I just start plummeting like that?’

‘Ideally you don’t fall like that because getting the elytra to deploy in the correct moment when you are falling out of control isn’t easy. So avoid sharp turns. You are gliding rather than flying’ the builder explained while walking away from the spot they were standing on

Fundy followed him curiously and soon after Iskall landed besides them. A dry but precise landing.

‘Good catch G’ Iskall said while approaching Fundy ‘you okay?’

‘Yeah… just got my feet wet’ he said 

Iskall made a face that could read as either disgust for the feeling of soaked feet or annoyance at Grian for letting it happen.

Either way the builder smiled and took off again for good measure, shouting ‘let’s go again’ while he soared back to the sky.

Iskall sighed in annoyance at that, while Fundy just looked at the blond spam rockets to reach the heights he wanted. Both Hermit’s had warned him against doing that as it could be dangerous but Grian seemed to do it almost every time, as if the speeds he could reach weren’t enough.

Flying with his wings was probably faster.

‘Why doesn't he use his wings?’ Fundy asked out loud without meaning to

‘What?’ Iskall asked back

Fundy considered not asking again since it looked like the builder wasn’t willing to answer, but asking just once couldn’t hurt. Right?

‘The purple, glowy wings… why is he using an elytra if he has wings?’ 

Iskall looked at him for a moment too long before looking away at the sky

‘Is not my place to say’ they said 

‘Oh’ Fundy answered, fearing having to deal with an awkward silence but right there Iskall spoke again with their eyes still trained in the flying dot that was Grian

‘He is gliding again, that’s our cue’ the cyborg said

Fundy nodded before taking off. He at least could nail that now, when just an hour ago he would jump and fall flat on his face to the amusement of his teachers. 

The problem now was moving in the air without falling and controlling his speed. 

In between his thinking he heard another set of rockets bellow him.

It had been like that all the time, Grian taking off first to supervise, Fundy afterwards and Iskall last to catch him were it necessary. Even if he felt a tad bit coddled at times he was grateful for the extra-care. Falling at high velocities even if the sea is waiting to catch you is terrifying. 

‘Do I repeat the thing?’ Fundy asked

‘Yup. Glide to your right, make a big circle until you are facing the shopping district again and use some rockets to regain altitude. And follow me’ Grian’s words reached through Fundy’s earpiece 

And he did as told. 

Gliding right towards a place called ‘Toon Towers’ that was apparently the base of a single Hermit. Fundy hadn’t believed at first, who could need 5 gigantic concrete towers for a base? The entirety of L’Manberg could live in three towers with room to spare but a single maniac needed five of them? 

He saw the goofy exterior of the towers made to look like the ones on the cartoons on tv and thought that making thousands of concrete blocks just to make silly buildings was a huge waste of time, but the Hermits had shown they had more time than anyone else apparently so he stopped bothering thinking about it and focused back on flying. 

He shifted direction slowly to make an U turn, facing now to the shopping district. At least he could get this right, it was the quick turns and sudden change of speed that sent him plummeting to the sea. 

He held a deep breath when using some rockets to go up again, the sudden change of speed wasn’t terrible but it had thrown him off the first time and it still made him  
panic. He set off two rockets and he had Grian on his line on sight again.

‘Ready?’ Grian asked

‘Yeah’ Fundy answered not ready to fall again

Just like before the builder increased his speed and gave a few tests of going upwards to let himself fall before slowing down again.

Fundy followed, having figured out the angle to prevent the elytra from closing when trying to glide up. He breathed a sigh of relief when he finished the maneuver seeing as he was still up in the sky.

‘Remember not to turn too sharply or your elytra will close’ the blond reminded Fundy

‘Okay’ he answered fearing the turns

‘You’ll do great dude’ Iskall’s voice came through his earpiece as encouragement 

Fundy nodded trying to convince himself that he would indeed ‘do great’ 

Grian angled himself upwards and made a quick 90 degree turn, Fundy followed suit feeling the strength of the wind pulling at his elytra to close it, but he remained airborne so it was fine.

But before he could catch his breath, the blond let himself fall before making a 120 degree turn like it was nothing. Fundy held his breath and followed but as he tried to turn the wind won and closed his elyta, sending him back to the sea 

‘No!’ He screamed out of fear and frustration

He tried to angle himself again so the elytra would catch his fall but it was easier said than done, the wind forcing it close and sending him down spiraling even faster. He saw the vast blue expanse of the sea approaching faster and faster and he closed his eyes waiting to get soaked.

But his fall was interrupted by a force that pushed him to the side. He opened his eyes

‘You turned around too quickly again’ Iskall told him, holding him and gliding back towards the platform

‘I did not! I swear!’ Fundy complained, he would have lifted his arms indignantly but that would have thrown Iskall off balance. Still the cyborg laughed lightly 

‘When you get the angle right you’ll nail it every time don’t worry’ they assured him

‘How long did it take you?’ Fundy asked

‘A couple of days maybe. It could have been more or less but it was so long ago I’m not sure’

Fundy expression grew to a serious one. Iskall could tell Fundy was upset or at least frustrated, so they spoke again

‘But you’ll get it quicker. I’m sure’ Iskall said with a smile of encouragement.

Fundy looked at him

‘How can you be so sure?’

‘I just know it dude’ 

‘Iskall’ Fundy said in the tone a kid would give you when they no longer believe you when you speak about Santa, Iskall sighed

‘Common, why would I lie to you?’ 

Fundy just looked at them sternly. 

The lack of wonder or trust the ginger displayed, made Iskall more determined to convince him of his capability.

‘When I arrived it took some time for Doc and Xisuma to make me my prosthetic eye… so I was trying to fly without any depth perception. I ended landing in bushes because I couldn’t estimate well my landing’ the cyborg explained, chuckling lightly at the memory before returning to their encouraging smile

‘That’s why I’m sure you’ll get it quicker’

Something flickered across Fundy’s face

‘I’m sure’ 

That extra push seemed to be enough to get the compliment across Fundy’s wall of doubt, and when it did it lifted his spirits up and he took off almost immediately after they arrived at the platform. 

Iskall just smiled fondly and took off afterwards to make sure the fox wouldn’t fall to the sea this time.

It took eight more tries for Fundy to nail the turns but when he did the cheers of both his instructor reached him through his earpiece. A smile tugging at his lips, followed by an excited yelp at the freedom of being in the air without fearing falling again. 

Well he could still fall at any moment if he wasn't careful but the euphoria would last long enough for him to ignore the fact for ten minutes or so. 

He heard a string of rockets approach him quickly just to be passed by a red blur that cheered just like Grian. The builder overtaking him easily and soaring higher.

‘What about a race?’ The blond asked through the communicator

‘Wait Grian-’ Iskall tried to intervene

‘How far?’ Fundy asked back

‘First to False’s base wins’

‘What is that?’

‘The evil looking tower over yonder’ Grian said flying forward to direct Fundy’s gaze to a gigantic black concrete tower with a glass dome for a ceiling that did resemble the lair of a supervillain 

‘Sure!’ Fundy answered back

‘No! no. Fundy you just got the turns right’ Iskall spoke through the intercommunicators

‘He is gonna be fine! Don’t worry Iskall!’ Grian assured him

‘I don’t doubt that but can you at least wait a bit to make sure he can land properly?’

‘Nope!’ Grian said popping the p, grin audible on his voice

‘Are we racing or what?’ Fundy asked

He was over the sea and full of euphoria so what could go wrong? 

‘Yeah!’ 

‘No!’ Iskall said with the tone a desperate mother would use to reason with a toddler trying to eat cereal for the fifth time of the day 

Fundy saw Grian make a sharp turn and glide a bit lower until he was almost side by side with him, the blond sporting a grin. 

‘Ready?’

‘Bring it!’ Fundy said determined to win

‘Go!’ Grian shouted dashing almost immediately

‘Hey!’ Fundy shouted clearly seeing the cheaty tactic the builder adopted

Against all what he had learned in the last couple of hours he burned quickly through the rockets the Hermits had so generously provided in hopes of reaching Grian. 

The builder seemed to burn as many rockets as him and yet kept a sizable advantage, so Fundy decided to glide down to gain velocity. 

Staring directly at the blue expanse and focusing on keeping his elytra open, he wondered for a second if Dream felt like that anytime he made one of his stunts falling down. 

He catched himself before falling to the sea, the momentum shaking him out of his head. He spammed rockets and focused back in catching up with Grian. 

That had been a weird thing to think about.

At least the sound of waves and rockets gave him something to anchor himself in reality. Perhaps he was still too shaken up about that and his mind had looped back to him the moment he had nothing else to think about. 

He shook his head, focusing back on the race for real this time. But the moment he did he realized Grian was nowhere to be seen, only the enormous black tower far in the distance. 

The temptation to look back was strong but the risk of falling was too high so he pushed forward, he was probably ahead. 

Or maybe Grian was just letting him win so as to not upset him. 

Just like his father would do anytime they played anything together. 

‘What the hell is going on?’ he asked himself, trying to shake all of the sudden thoughts of his family that flooded him. 

They came out of nowhere and left him as quickly. Maybe having this much time to be alone with his own head wasn’t a good idea.

The usually lulling rhythm of the sea had dragged out his mind everything he had wished to escape, not even the sporadic cadence of the rockets could break the aquatic melody. 

The sea did put him at ease, perhaps too at ease if his mind was pouring again with all the current events that had led him to leave his world in the first place. He panicked trying to block all of it. 

Flying at high speeds over the sea was not a good place to have another breakdown, that was for sure. He saw the tower near and rushed to it.

Taking in the gigantic decors that looked like an angel and also taking in the monstrous dimensions of the tower. He saw an entrance and flew towards it hoping he could find somewhere to land and calm down, Grian would probably be there waiting for him or arrive soon enough. 

He flew close enough to see that behind the wall that guarded the gigantic structure from the sea there was an abysmal drop down to bedrock, but before he could ponder over it he crashed against a gigantic window he assumed was an entrance.

He managed to hear a worried ‘Fundy!’ being shouted through his intercommunicator but he didn’t manage to register much else, aside that he was falling down to the bedrock and afterwards a splash.

He felt numb and slowly cold started creeping into him. 

He tried to move his face away to keep the cold from climbing his neck but his body seemed separated from him, barely responding to anything he tried to do. 

Trying to open his eyes didn’t seem to work either. At least his ears seemed to work the most as they picked up the sound of a rocket and a nearby splash. He tried once again to look over but his body felt so far away and his head impossibly heavy.

He felt his head grow more heavy and perhaps he groaned complaining because immediately he felt his head being supported again and someone saying something he guessed had to be a ‘Sorry’

The owner of the voice was none other than the owner of the base Fundy had just crashed into. 

False looked concerned at the fox hybrid she had just picked up from the bottom of her base, trying to assess the damage. There was no blood so the chances of it being a fracture where minimal.

‘False!’ Grian shouted before approaching the bottom of the pit

‘Grian! Over here!’ False said

Grian landed quickly and approached, looking worriedly at the limp figure in the taller blonde’s arms.

‘I really have to put something on that window… people keep crashing into it’ False said looking up at the offending architectural asset

Grian pulled out his inventory searching for a potion of healing 

‘Iskall is going to kill me’ he muttered under his breath ‘How many people have crashed on your window?’ he asked loudly just to have something to distract himself while looking for a potion

‘Zedaph face planted into it, and this little guy’ False said before looking back at the ginger she was cradling at the moment ‘By the way where did he come from?’

Grian sighed clearly he didn’t find a healing potion

‘He is a guest that Iskall brought over… but between you and me Iskall is acting as if he was their kid’ Grian explained

‘No wonder, he does look young’ False said looking at the fox

‘And they are going to kill me when they get here’ Grian said clearly feeling guilty

‘Probably’ False said non-chalant ‘In the meantime we should give him some potions so is safer to move him’

‘Can I rummage your storage system?’ the builder asked

‘Yeah. Don’t crash in any windows’

Shortly after Grian returned with potions and both Hermits moved Fundy up to the main floor in False’s base, a very worried and angry Iskall arrived at the base as well. 

For the most part False managed to keep them quiet so as not to disturb Fundy, but the two kept bickering while she bandaged him, but after the fourth passive aggressive remark Iskall gave, False sighed and took out her sword and gestured both of them to ‘shut up’. It was surprisingly effective.

Now left in a mildly dark room and alone, Fundy’s mind managed to drop all attempts at keeping alert about his surroundings and he fell into a deep sleep. 

He woke up on a grassy plane. Sun impossibly bright with sunset hues even if it was firmly set in the middle of the sky.

Fundy looked around just to find himself wrapped in a familiar green cape, his jacket nowhere to be seen. 

‘Oh’ he remembered this particular date. It had started with a picnic at lunch and afterwards he had fallen asleep cuddling Dream and using his cape as a blanket. 

He looked around for any signs of his fiancé but when he found none, he decided to run. 

This date had started tenderly and lovingly but it had gone sour after some time, and Fundy wasn't going to stay to witness it go downhill once again.

He ran with no sense or direction or goal, just having clear he didn’t want to be there. Cape discarded just so he could run faster. Willing his paws to carry him as far as he could go. 

The sun was bright and the scenery idyllic but all he felt was a sense of dread clawing at his back. No matter how much he pushed forward he could feel the fear slowly creeping to his back, and then his neck and when it got to his legs he tripped something and fell. He quickly stood up to look at what had stopped his attempts of fleeing.

And all the color of his face drained when he was met with the incomplete white mask. Bright metal staring back at him with the patterns carved as eyes digging deep within his soul. The lower edge of the mask cut in a robotic smile hinting that the lower halve was missing.

And then he felt a pair of arms wrap around him, and a weight settled on his back. 

He would have flinched away if the gentle caressing of his hair and the warm embrace didn’t invite him to stay.

‘I found you!’ The cheery voice behind him said happily, at the same time the embrace strengthen

Fundy tried to speak but nothing came out his throat. 

His silence was met with a gentle laugh. That made his skin crawl at the same time as he found it endearing. 

‘What? You are giving me the silent treatment now?’ 

Fundy tried speaking again but he instead focused on the arm wrapped tightly around his torso, wearing the sleeve of his black jacket.

‘Fundy?’ The gentle voice asked concern seeping in it’s tone

Fundy wanted to be angry. He wanted to hate the intonation that denoted fondness and worry but he couldn’t. Instead he found himself clenching his fists and jaw in an attempt to keep his tears from falling.

Whether they were out of frustration or sadness he didn’t know.

‘Hey what's wrong?’

You! You are what’s wrong! Fundy wanted to scream but if he had opened his mouth the tears would have followed his words so he chose to just close his eyes and tense up. Resisting as best as he could to not allow any opening that he could use to tear him apart.

‘Fundy look at me’ the worry of the voice slipping away to make room for a more demanding tone.

No! He refused. Staying right where he was and digging his paws further into the grass to keep his stance.

The hand that had been caressing his hair lovingly grabbed at his face suddenly. The arm on his torso moving away to find one of his hands to turn him around.

‘Look at me’ the voice demanded more sternly now.

Fundy didn’t give in, even if the hand on his chin was pulling quite strongly to make him turn around and face him. 

But then the hand that had been roaming trying to get a hold on his hand went away completely. Cold filtered air reached his neck, respiration audible thanks to the air filter. 

‘Fundy please look at me’ 

Fundy moved his head away from him. Closing his eyes and avoiding eye contact. And then he heard the click of the remaining halve of the mask being taken off. And then a puff of even colder unfiltered air hit him. Chilling him to his very core. 

‘Please. Please look at me’ the gentle tone returned to the voice expelling frozen air right into his neck. 

Fundy couldn’t hold the tears more and they fell. The moment they landed on the hand currently holding his chin, the hold became gentler and the other hand that had disappeared to take the lower side of the mask away, came back to his chest to hold him closer.

Fundy hated it so much. And yet not enough to kick or punch to get away.

‘Just let me look at you. Please. You are worrying me love’ 

Fundy wanted to scream at the words but all he did was look back defeated at the deep viridian eyes burning holes into his soul. 

He smiled , freckled cheeks pulling back to allow a toothy smile to peer, eyes full of concern.

Fundy stared at that tanned face for long, knowing it wouldn’t last. It had broken back then and it would definitely break now. 

And almost like a prediction the loving expression morphed into an angry stare, the hand that had been gently holding his face tightening its grip until it hurted

‘Why are you avoiding me? What happened?’  
Dream demanded to know

Fundy just looked straight ahead ‘Nothing’ he answered

He felt the the fingers digging into his face slowly getting sharper, the viridian breaking down into a deep purple that could have looked like pitch black if he wasn’t this close

‘Fundy I just want to help…. please don’t be difficult’ Dream said, staring at Fundy unblinkingly 

‘I told you. Is nothing’ Fundy repeated. Resigned to his fate ‘nothing you will solve at least’

He saw the anger fester. Hands transformed now in claws digging so hard on his face they could break skin at any moment. The rapid grow of purple on Dream’s eyes was accompanied by the loss of all the color of his face, teeth drawn in a drawl as well , far sharper than they were just moments ago.

Fundy just stared at him, not feigned bravery, but frozen in pure terror. Even if he didn’t have his hands on him, he wouldn’t be able to run anyways. 

‘What does that mean?’ 

Fundy was about to speak when Dream interrupted 

‘Doesn't matter. You can’t solve them either. We’ll have to have a serious talk when you get back’

That phrase took him by surprise, and the terror was enough to shake him out of his frozen state

‘W-What do you mean?... I’m right here’ 

Dream grinned, his sharp smile being too big for his face, making Fundy’s skin crawl at the sight

‘You know how he is… do you really think you would get away like this?’ 

‘I got away’ Fundy stated. Trying to remind himself of exactly that

‘For how long Fundy?’ The pale claws holding his face now dug in, getting his white shirt stained by blood dripping from his chin 

‘Enough’ Fundy said bravely, trying to hide how much he wanted to curl up and cry

‘I’ll be gone for long enough… is impossible to stay away forever but the time I have is enough’ 

‘We will see’ the pale being said, releasing his grip on him. ‘Let’s hope is also enough for your friends’

Fundy backed off and just glared in hopes of making him go away. Until realization dawned him… enough time for his friends to... what? 

Escape?

Fight?

Regroup?

Forget him?

Hate him? 

As if the figure standing in front of him read his thoughts, he put a gentle face or as gentle as his disfigured face could manage 

‘No matter what they do… I’ll be waiting for you… always’ he said approaching Fundy once again

‘No! Shut up!’ Fundy tried to get away but that monstrous mouth was already on his lips stealing all his oxigen.

And he woke up trying to push away the figure and coughing the potion False had tried to give him.

‘Whoa! Whoa! Calm down!’ The blonde said leaving the potion aside and trying to help Fundy sit down.

But the ginger just pushed her away, panicked.  
Tears falling non-stop. Hiccups and cries shaking his form.

False frowned and stubbornly hugged him.

Fundy tried to fight back but the strong arms and warmth surrounding him held him in place. The smell of sea and the light trace of flower scents did manage to ease him. 

It was very unfamiliar for him but the tight, almost protective hug lulled him the same way the sea could. Perhaps he missed his mother more than he had thought.

A small voice in him remarked how embarrassing all of this was but he wisely decided to ignore it. 

False slowly let her hug ease once she felt Fundy had calmed down, yet she didn’t let go and was determined to hold on until the ginger let go of the hug first.

It felt like a whole eternity but it probably took Fundy just fifteen minutes to calm down again and once he felt his breathing even out enough, he dared to look up, and he was met with serious blue eyes fixed on a pale and scarred complexion, framed by blonde bangs.

False stared right back at this kid, that had the same bloodshot eyes she had once sported after surviving a death world. 

Fundy seemed to catch the silent understatement False expressed with just her expression.

Both reached a silent agreement. 

Iskall arrived shortly after, most likely worried at the absence of their fellow Hermit just to find False sitting beside the bed with sword in one hand and the other tightly held by a sleeping Fundy. 

‘Now I get why you brought him over’ False told Iskall instead of offering an explanation 

Iskall just sighed and sat down besides the blonde

‘Is he alright?’ They asked

‘He was probably having a bad time while dreaming… I thought he was in pain so I gave him another regen potion but that woke him up and he freaked out. He is alright now. Don’t worry’ False assured him

And Iskall smiled slightly at the affirmation 

‘If you are protecting him then I’m sure nothing bad can happen’ Iskall said while staring gently at Fundy’s sleeping form

False look the scene before aawing, Iskall just chuckled in return and both settled in a comfortable silence 

Until Iskall said

‘You should stop cleaning your windows Falsie... they are a hazard’ 

‘Shush’ was all False answered

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things I would like to clarify even if I don't have too.  
> 1\. Appreciate Mr. Soot's writting but he is wrong and I won't accept a salmon as Fundy's Mom. Sally is a fox hybrid that was a sailor.  
> 2.Dream non human design goes brrrrr and I will be glad to answer questions about him  
> 3\. Y'all are so stupidly nice and all your comments light up my day :3


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Happy Holidays! 
> 
> As always I have been reading your comments and they are just the best! I find all of them very encouraging! <3
> 
> As a holiday treat we get a fluffier chapter
> 
> cw. Cursing
> 
> Hope you enjoy it! :3

The gentle darkness slowly gave away back to consciousness and he opened his eyes to more black. Although this seemed to look like a ceiling of black concrete accompanied by the soft blue light of sea lanterns. 

He stared at the dark expanse until his other senses woke up, first his hearing identified nearby breathing so he sat to look around, just for a small weight on his chest to stop him.

‘Oh you are awake’ he heard before looking at the owner of the voice, a pale blonde woman with a kind expression. Before he said anything he noticed the weight was one of her hands that he was currently holding. 

Embarrassed he immediately let go of it at the same time as he sat down.

‘I’m sorry!’ he apologize trying not to blush out of embarrassment

‘Aw. Don’t apologize is alright’ the blonde said while standing up from the floor. ‘Did you get a good rest?’ she asked

‘Yes’ Fundy answered, still feeling embarrassed

‘Then you have nothing to apologize! I was just doing my duty’ She declared proudly, lifting a netherite sword with her other hand and sliding it back to it’s sheath 

Fundy just stared back at her confused

‘Uhm. Thanks?’ he awkwardly said

‘You don’t remember asking me to stay while you slept I assume’ the woman said clearly seeing the fox’s confusion 

‘Uhm… no… sorry’ he said trying to hide under his own jacket wondering what else had he said when he was out of it. 

‘Well don’t worry about it’ she said with a smile, at the same time as she extended her hand to him 

‘My name is Falsesymmetry but you can call me False’

Fundy took her hand and shook it politely 

‘I’m Fundy’ he greeted back, noticing how thick her leather gloves where

After the handshake broke off Fundy talked again

‘Where am I?’

‘You are in my base! Since your elytra classes with Iskall and Grian didn’t go so well’ she said gently pointing at his head

Fundy immediately placed a hand on his forehead and felt a couple of bandages under his bangs.

‘How hard did I hit my head?’ he asked still feeling the medical clothe

‘Eh. Pretty hard. You fell unconscious, had what I assume was a panic attack and then you fell asleep again’ False explained, approaching the bed ‘do you mind if I sit here?’ she said standing at the edge of the bed

‘No. Is okay’ he said 

‘At least there was no blood’ False explained while sitting down ‘your forehead just swol a bit but we treated you with regen and health potions so is alright now’ 

Fundy tried to remember what had happened, he definitely didn’t remember waking up and saying anything of what False told him, but she didn’t look like she would lie so he decided to let it go. 

If he tried to remember all that came to his mind was the sea and the gigantic tower he was supposed to land on. The thing was mainly black and considering he was in a room made of black concrete blocks he took a guess. 

‘So we are in the evil tower in the sea?’ he asked

‘Yeah! this evil tower is my base!’ She said proudly 

Fundy though quietly that this thing was a tad bit big for being just ‘a base’. HE had seen it from afar and it looked like the main building of an evil corporation. Not like someone's house. Was she evil?

He looked back at her, she held nothing but a kind expression, so he asked 

‘Are you evil?’ he surprised himself being so blunt

She frowned a bit ‘no. Quite the contrary actually’

‘Why did you make an evil tower as your base then?’

The knot on her forehead untangled and she made a thoughtful expression. Placing a hand on her chin as if stroking a beard. Fundy relaxed against the pillows seeing that he stumbled into someone not easily annoyed. 

‘Guess it does look like an evil tower’ she said before stopping her fake contemplation and looking at him again ‘It just happened’

‘How do you build a giant tower that ‘just happens’ to look like an evil tower?’

False smiled ‘Maybe I am evil and I’m the last one learning that I’m actually an evil mastermind’

Fundy gathered that this lady was actually quite cool if she took everything so calmly. 

So he kept joking ‘Am I part of your evil experiments?’

‘Ah yes! I should probably grab you and put you in an examination table and call my evil co-worker to decide what our next plan is’ She said ‘smiling evilly’. 

‘What would be an evil co-worker?’ Fundy asked, smiling a bit behind his fake serious face

‘Another evil mastermind. Of course!’

‘Oh you casually have another evil scientist here?’ 

‘Three actually! Well… two mad scientist and the actual evil scientist is my neighbour’ 

Fundy thought about it, the only close base he had seen was the ridiculous ‘Toon Towers’.

‘Your evil mastermind co-worker is the person that lives in towers made to look like cartoons?’

‘Yes. Tango is very evil’ False said, sure of her words 

Fundy just huffed a bit at that.

‘Oh no. I’m actually serious about that. One of those towers is inspired by an evil tower of a cartoon villain and he has an evil laboratory there and every time you enter it an evil jingle sounds’ the blonde said very seriously.

Fundy’s brain melted at that. Evil laboratory with an evil jingle on an evil cartoon tower.

This guy didn’t actually sound evil at all.

‘Are you sure he is evil?’ 

‘100%. He even has a villainous laugh and had an evil mustache for a while’

The fact False was saying all of this seriously made Fundy assume she was just joking around. Because if anything of that was true he needed to meet this ‘evil mastermind’ as soon as he could.

‘Sure’ Fundy said dropping the joke ‘you never actually told me why you built an evil tower’ he said, still wanting to know the reason behind a gigantic black concrete tower. 

‘I just had an idea in my head and halfway through building, I looked at the tower and saw it. So I thought ‘Oh no! It looks like the HQ of a supervillain… oh well’ And I just kept going. And now is the evil building that overlooks my cyberpunk city’ False explained.

Fundy nodded along.Well that made some amount of sense. He wasn’t a builder but sometimes his experimental projects where just a clear objective but he had no idea how to realize them and when he tried-

Wait.

Had she-

Fundy did a double take at her words before asking. ‘Did you say ‘my’ cyberpunk city?’ He hoped he had misunderstood

False nodded 

‘Yep! It isn’t finished yet! But I would say is pretty cool’ she beamed with pride

Fundy would have thrown a pillow at the floor. 

Did this woman admit to build a whole city on her own? 

Suddenly the reason behind an evil base wasn't important anymore. He needed to see this city with his own two eyes. 

‘C-Can I see it?’ Fundy asked, trying to dissimulate just how baffled he was at the moment. 

‘Eh. Maybe later’ She said, pulling at her gloves and flexing her fingers

‘What? Why?’ Fundy asked failing to hide his disappointment

False stood up and looked him in the eyes again. ‘Iskall made rabbit stew and you should eat right away’ 

Fundy was about to complain when he thought about doing something more important

‘Where is Iskall?’ he asked

‘They had to go to make some errands, so you are staying with me until they come back’ She said while approaching the door

Fundy doubted for a moment, she seemed nice but was it really a good idea to follow her?  
He would have argued more but his stomach growled betraying him. 

‘Are you coming?’ She asked with a knowing smile 

‘Yeah yeah. Just a sec’ he said pushing away the blankets and looking around for his hat. 

He found it on top of the makeshift night stand besides the bed and he put it on at once, finding a note underneath it. He glanced at it.

‘If you need me you can call me or text and I’ll be back immediately’- Iskall

Fundy smiled a bit at the note before glancing up, False still waiting him at the entrance 

‘Let 's go?’ She asked 

‘Yep!’ He said pocketing the note and standing up 

False walked outside the room and to the main floor on her base, walking towards the makeshift kitchen she had across the main level, Fundy’s paws following right behind her. 

‘If you don’t like the stew we can always have some steak’ False said while walking 

‘In any case Iskall will return shortly and I’m sure he will bring cookies or something with him as well so there is that to look forward to. In the meantime-’ False stopped in her tracks as the steps behind her grew quitter until they stopped fully. 

She turned around to see a perplexed fox staring at the glass sphere and dome at the very top of her base. 

Fundy was in awe, looking at the glowing sphere made with sea lanterns and glass that provided the entire main body of the tower with light. The magnitude of the fake sun was baffling his mind. That thing could probably be the same size or even bigger than his entire house, considering it manage to keep the mostly black and grey walls bright.

False just waited patiently. A fond smile on her face. 

She remembered staring with the same awe at the buildings back on Hermitcraft’s second world. They had been impressive then and with each new colonized world the Hermits had grown more ambitious so she assumed the little fox was going to take his time to look at the base. 

‘How did you get all these sea lanterns?’ Fundy asked, slowly lowering his gaze through the walls of the tower 

‘I got some myself from sea temples, but many I just bought in the shopping district’ She said ‘Same as all the concrete’

Fundy looked around, seeing a giant aquarium on one wall, mirrored on the otherside by a water curtain that looked to be the actual entrance. His gaze went a bit lower and he saw the window that surely mirrored the one he had crashed into. Looking at them closely they actually looked like they had the shape of an angel.  
The blonde followed his gaze and noticed the windows ‘I’m thinking of changing them to grey glass or put some blue patterns on them to make them more visible. Can’t have people trying to enter and crashing into my windows’ she said with a small grin

‘I would have never guessed those where windows actually’ Fundy said, still transfixed, taking in the sheer magnitude of the tower he was in from what he could see. Surprisingly the tower kept going downwards so he approached the glass railing surrounding all the outer edge of the floor to find the end of the tower. 

False followed him ‘Careful, don’t want another accident’ she said softly

‘What could happen?’ Fundy said still focused 

‘You could fall down to bedrock’ the blonde said 

Fundy stood frozen in place for a second. Thinking. He had seen the abysmal gap between the wall and the tower before crashing, but that was just the perimeter. 

He looked at False

‘All your base reaches bedrock level?’ He asked

‘Yep!’ She said 

Fundy then walked determined towards the railing, and when he reached it, he looked down, just to be met with pure blackness. If he squinted he could see the tower extended all the way down, where the black concrete got confused with bedrock and darkness. A gush of wind blew as if confirming the magnitude of the abyss in front of him. 

He took a deep breath and tried to talk but a squeak left his mouth. He stared back at False, with his mouth still open, incapable of voicing anything. 

‘It took a while’ False answered with a casual tone 

Fundy would have argued that digging an entire square to bedrock and then constructing a ridiculously big concrete tower for just one person would have taken more ‘than a while’ but his brain was too fried to find words. 

False seemed to realize that since she just smiled proudly and turned around to approach the makeshift kitchen to encourage the fox to follow her. 

‘You can ask about it after you eat, the stew is going to get cold’

Fundy stared at False’s back, and then to the abyss, and then back to False. And he decided to follow the blonde, still with no words. 

Turns out Iskall was a pretty good cook as Fundy found out from the stew. The moment he smelled it he felt as if he had been starving for three whole days and he devoured the plate False served him, and the plate after that one as well. 

When he reached his third plate he realized False had sat down with him to have lunch as well so he slowed down.

‘You haven’t eaten in a while?’ False asked trying to sound casual but Fundy picked the subtle concern of her words

‘Oh no I have. I just woke up very hungry and this is delicious’ he admitted with a smile

False smiled in return ‘Iskall is not half bad doing meals. Still I’m better’ she admitted while taking her gloves off

‘Really?’ Fundy asked, doubting that severely

‘Yeah! I even had a Dinner on our last world and the Hermits went to it frequently’ she said at the same time she left her thick gloves on the table.

Fundy would have dismissed the scars on her hands if they had been few. But the reality was that white lines of different sizes and widths covered the entirety of her hands, the patterns littered on her skin from her wrists all the way to the tip of her fingers. 

‘Are you wondering how I got them?’ False asked 

Fundy realized he had been staring and he quickly looked away

‘No! I just got curious. I mean… no… maybe… no’ he bit his tongue to shut himself up 

He was born on a world with respawn so seeing someone with scars was quite strange. Especially someone with so many scars. The fact Iskall had cybernetics was already baffling but the cyborg wasn’t probably going to talk about them, and False had opened the gate for him to ask but he didn’t want to cross a line just out of curiosity. He should have stayed quiet, he had probably ruined lunch for her. 

False seemed to think otherwise since she just took her spoon and tasted the stew calmly

‘Ever wondered what would happen if you took off an item with a curse of binding in it?’ 

Fundy’s ears perked up, surprised that she had answered. And then after processing said answer he got even more questions.

‘How did you overcome a curse of bidding?!’ Fundy asked not meaning to raise his voice but his curiosity had been piqued 

‘Eh… I either escaped the cuffs or died permanently. So I decided to escape. And I escaped’ False remarked as if it was nothing

Fundy had many more questions now. What cuffs? Why did she had cuffs on at some point? Had she been imprisoned? And why? What did she escape if it was going to kill her? and how?

‘Are you going to answer more questions?’ He asked testing the waters

False left the stew for a bit and thinked about it

‘Not all the scars are from that’ she stated

Fundy was about to ask something else but False smiled ‘I don’t take more questions’ 

The ginger stared at her with his mouth open. Before frowning

‘Wait! That 's not fair!’

False just grinned while eating the rest of her stew

‘False please! You can’t just start an epic story and not tell me more!’ Fundy complained. Tail fluffed up to try and intimidate the woman into giving him more information.

‘Yes I can. Look!’ She remarked before taking another sip of the stew 

‘False!’ Fundy whined like a little kid 

The blonde chuckled amused 

‘False please!’ the fox pleaded, using his best puppy eyes

‘Those don’t work on me. A Mr. Diggity Dawg has made me inmune. Tough luck buddy’

Fundy groaned. Pulling at his hair before face planting in the table

‘A little bit dramatic aren’t we?’ the woman said with an audible smile

Fundy looked up, with his chin still on the table and glared at False. She stared back at him, smiling proudly of herself. 

Fundy glared even harder, so False left the stew aside

‘Alright Mr. Dramatic. I’ll answer more questions’ she said

And Fundy immediately sat up excited

‘But!’ False said, making Fundy deflate a little ‘we make a deal’

‘What type of deal?’ Fundy asked suspiciously. Anytime he made deals they didn’t go well

‘You beat me at arm wrestling and then I’ll answer’ False challenged with a glint on her eyes

Fundy looked at her. And went over it in his head.

If she was suggesting it, it was probably because she was sure she could win. She was probably going to cheat seeing as she was so sure of herself, although Fundy recognized she was very tall and had probably a bulkier frame than himself. 

But why propose that if she could just simply dismiss him and not give him any chance of asking about her past?

Fundy concluded False just wanted to arm wrestle. And since he was probably going to lose anyway and find nothing more, he decided to try it just for the kicks.

‘You are on!’ Fundy said smiling back. Determination growing within him as well. At least he was going to put up a fight.

Well at least he tried.

The first round was over as soon as it started. Fundy didn’t even have a moment to react. Although he noted False’s hands were so scarred they even felt ragged.

The second time he pulled and put all his body weight into it, he lasted an outstanding five seconds before getting defeated.

For the third round False decided to ‘give him an advantage’ and so she didn’t move for 15 seconds, and yet no matter how hard Fundy pulled he didn’t manage to even move her. ‘Want another 20 seconds?’ False asked him but Fundy gave up and accepted defeat.

He might have gotten defeated but at least he learned a valuable lesson that day. Getting punched by False was probably a death sentence, and she was definitely on his list of cool people now. 

False gave him a curtly nod and handshake ‘You’ll get it next time’ she said with a sly grin.

At least she had a good sense of sportsmanship. 

After the quick contest, both of them settled down and chatted while False finished her stew. Fundy didn’t get more answers out of her, instead she explained all her thought process behind her giant base, she talked a bit about her adventures besides other Hermits and they ended up talking about the sea.

Fundy eagerly shared everything he knew about it and False listening closely. After the list of facts and stores Fundy told her, False reminded him of her ‘cyberpunk city’ and invited him to go see it.

Fundy had his objections since he was having a great time just talking with her but he ultimately gave in. He needed to see this city. False couldn’t have built a city just on her own. 

‘No fucking way!’ he complained the second he went through the water curtain the tower had as an entrance. Right in front of him a gigantic crater equal to the one the tower stood on expanded all the way down to bedrock, where a city built in a cyberpunk style stood over platforms that kept the buildings from the thin water layer that prevented the fall to bedrock from being lethal.

‘I told you! Is my city!’ False said proudly landing in one of the lower roofs of her tower

Fundy followed suit. Now actually having a look at the tower as well. He had to look up and squint to try and capture the entirety of the glass dome but even when he bent back a bit it was impossible. 

‘Why do you all build such big things?!’ Fundy complained more than asked still looking up 

‘Because we are Hermits. That’s what we do’ was all the explanation False offered

Fundy huffed at the answer before looking at the blue ceiling he was standing on, and then and the city below him.

He studied at all the buildings and corridors connecting them. Identifying three big platforms that served as the foundations for the city, as well as a boat. Again, everyone inL’Manberg could probably live there with room to spare. 

And then he saw a boat going upwards vertically through a water stream.

‘What is-’ Fundy was going to ask

‘A futuristic boat going up a water stream’ False explained with finality, no room for questions. 

Fundy had seen a lot of things in the last couple of hours, but for some reason a vertical boat was the thing that was going to make him lose his marbles. 

‘Boats don’t work like that. How... just… HOW?!’ He questioned again but the builder besides him just answered ‘Is just a vertical boat’ 

He had seen boats and ships since a young age and that just wasn’t how a naval vessel should work. He could deal with stupidly big structures made by a single person but a vertical boat? That crossed the line!

‘False! what do you mean is just a vertical boat?!’

The blonde tried to keep her composed air, but the level of investment Fundy had in this particular thing was truly endearing, so she giggled.

‘False!’ Fundy said indignantly. His tail fluffing up and his ears pulled back a bit, had he more fur he would have puffed out by now. He was even pouting like a small child. 

‘I told you Fundy. Is a futuristic boat going up a water stream’

‘That looks like a regular boat! Why is it vertical?!’ Fundy demanded to know  
False just laughed 

‘False please I need to know!’ He said grabbing at the lapels of her jacket

False just gently ruffled his head, messing his hat in the process. 

That seemed to quiet him down since he released his light grip on her jacket and just stood there.

‘Sorry dude, I don’t have more answers for you’ False said softly seeing Fundy relax

And then something she didn’t expect happened, the foxed smiled at her. He gave a sincere smile filled with unaltered joy

‘Is okay. I’ll just live mad about it’ he said. Without any trace of malice or anger on his voice. Just actual happiness.

The smile caught False by surprise. She had figured Fundy would be a grumpy and serious guy or maybe he was reserved just like her. Whatever was the case seeing this amount of joy coming from the same fox that had woken up scared and crying tugged at her heart. 

Fundy meanwhile just relished in the positive attention, unaware that he had just adopted another Hermit as his parent.

‘Hey Fundy’ she said softly, removing her hand from his head

‘Yeah?’ 

‘Iskall is probably getting back soon. But feel free to visit anytime you’d like’ she said with a smile

Fundy nodded at that. He would be glad to come visit. Maybe if he came enough he could figure out how the vertical boat worked, also maybe False could teach him how to be so good at arm wrestling.

False on her part was itching to hug the little fox but she didn’t want to push it. He didn’t seem to mind the hair ruffling but a hug might be too much. He seemed happy and she didn’t want to ruin the moment for him so she just enjoyed the brief quiet moment before a string of rockets came rushing from the distance. It drew the attention of both of them and they saw Iskall approaching. 

Soon after the cyborg landed in front of them and greeted them both. Giving False a large amount of shulker boxes she had ordered from the glass shop. 

Fundy looked at both of them talking and decided he would just stare at the city until they were done. 

And so he missed the quiet interaction between both Hermits

‘Thank you Iskall’ False thanked

‘No problem. Is he alright?’ Iskall asked, sparing a quick look at Fundy that had just sat down to stare at the city and try to figure out the vertical boat by staring at it.

‘Yeah. What happened earlier was just a quick thing. He seems to be alright overall’ False said ‘you are taking him to your base right?’

‘Yup’

‘Good. Also if you get him injured again I will end you’ False said with a threatening smile

Iskall chuckled

‘Don’t worry Falsie. It wasn’t me. I’ll punch Grian for you’ 

‘You better, or I will.’ 

After that exchange they decided to end the conversation and Iskall approached Fundy so they could take off back to the shopping district since Iskall had to make one more purchase before returning to their base. 

False waved them goodbye but before they left, Fundy went and hugged her. She was surprised for a moment before she returned the hug. 

Fundy then broke the hug and happily waved ‘Bye False!’

‘Goodbye!’ she waved back once more before Fundy took off followed by Iskall.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Last chapter was actually so long it had to be cut in two so you get another chapter of Fundy adopting Hermits today while he fails to comprehend how the Hermits can be so ridiculous.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it and as always thank you so much for your comments <3
> 
> Also thanks to Lin (@ivorylin) for beta reading :3
> 
> Cw: Cursing

‘False is so nice!’ Fundy remarked, the sound of his voice transmitting to Iskall’s earpiece while they flew 

‘Wait until you annoy her and she trolls you back’ Iskall said ‘ She doesn’t call herself Trollsymmetry for nothing’

‘You are one to say Iskall. You were a bit of a troll back then’ Fundy said remembering the first time they had actually talked to build his bunker door

‘It was a defense mechanism against your trolling dude’ Iskall said ‘ I was not gonna get owned by a kid’ they said half joking, half complaining 

‘I’m not a kid!’ Fundy protested

Iskall just smiled lightly at that 

‘Iskall I’m not a kid!’ the ginger complained 

‘Is just a saying. Of course you aren’t. You have enough strength to knock me over with just one hug’ the cyborg cleared up, guessing that perhaps this was another thing that annoyed the fox.

Fundy settled down and didn’t say anything else regarding the nickname, instead choosing to ask about the giant structure he saw now in the horizon. 

It was a gigantic pyramid with huge pillars adorned with helices designs and a giant ring on top of it

‘Iskall is that another base?’ Fundy asked directing their attention forward

‘Yup! That’s Impulse’s base!’ 

Fundy had looked at it at first while practicing with the elytra, he dismissed it since he assumed it was an important building for the server considering it’s magnitude and technological appearance. But after seeing False’s base he realized the structure was probably just another insane creation done by one Hermit to use as a base. 

‘Why do you guys need such big bases?’ Fundy asked, now noticing that the pyramid had a foundation that went all the way down to the sea floor. Because of course it did. 

‘Well some of us just like to make big builds’ Iskall explained ‘Some Hermits like Impulse just have a bunch of farms in their bases so they need the space to fit them all. The lower part of his base is a a kelp and drowned farm’ they said, pointing at the subaquatic section of the pyramid 

‘How long does it usually take you guys to complete these things?’ 

‘Hmm. Well depends how much time you put into them. My tree is not finished yet and I have spent months working in it, but I work on it from time to time instead of constantly. Other Hermits spend a ton of time in their bases and they finish them pretty quick. And then you have people like Impulse who has rebuilt his pyramid like three times all in under two months’

Fundy blinked. And then he blinked again. 

‘What?’ he asked trying to find a reason why someone would re-do such a massive structure

‘Oh yeah. Impulse tore his base down and built it back up again three times now. First just to make it one block higher and the other two times because he didn’t like the color he used for the accents’ Iskall said. Tone painfully casual

Fundy would have violently reacted but he was in the air and he couldn’t express his disbelief appropriately. Instead he decided to be concise

‘What the fuck is wrong with you people?

Iskall laughed at that

‘No. I’m serious! What the fuck?!’ Fundy insisted, his disbelief sounding almost like anger 

Iskall just laughed even harder at his reaction.

‘Iskall!’ he whined demanding answers 

‘Sorry. Sorry dude’ Iskall said between laughs and chuckles trying to settle down ‘is just. You sound so angry’ 

‘I am angry! You are all ridiculous! and nobody has given me an explanation aside from ‘it looks nice, it looks cool, I just wanted to do it’ who wouldn’t be mad?!’ the fox said seriously wishing he could gesture with his hands as well but fearing he would plummet out of the sky if he tried.

‘Well what can I say? We really do stuff like that precisely for those reasons. There isn’t any major plan or intention behind it. We just do’ the cyborg explained 

Fundy just huffed at that and didn’t speak for the rest of the flight. Iskall let him be silent since he was probably thinking of something. He didn’t look truly angry as far as they could tell. 

After a couple of minutes Iskall pointed to the shopping district and both ended up landing in the main street, in front of the ‘town hall’. Iskall managed to fluidly land in one fell swoop and Fundy almost fell flat on his face, thankfully the cyborg was there to catch him. 

‘You almost got it!’ Iskall said proudly 

‘Well it’s either that or crashing again’ Fundy replied with a bit of a grin

‘Nah. You got it’ Iskall said while walking towards a wooden building ‘I’m gonna buy some stuff, I’ll be back on a second’ they said while walking down the main street

Fundy looked on, noticing that the building was in fact floating atop a lake

‘So that must be Grian’s barge’ he remarked to no one in particular, just looking at the quite elegant building before focusing on the main street. It was far wider than any of the other streets. It was also prettier, with brick, bushes and trees on its side. The building ahead was also made of brick and rested on top of a hill. That did look like an actual communal build, and considering it had what looked like a main nether portal in it. It did look like a town hall. 

Fundy walked towards it when a flash of light caught his eye. He looked back at the trees at the side of the main road where he thought he had seen a glimmer. And sure enough he saw it, something was catching the sunlight in the treetops. He approached trying to get a better look at it. As it turned out, it was a diamond.

He inspected the glimmering blue rock closer just to realize that there were multiple of them littered through all the treetops. Not one. Not a couple. That had to be close to a stack, or more.

So diamonds were used as decorations in treetops. Because of course they were.

He sighed and decided to focus back on making his way to the town hall. There was no use questioning why on Void would they choose to hang diamonds from trees. Probably because they thought it looked pretty. And it did actually, although they could get the same look hanging soul lamps or christmas lights in the trees. 

But whatever. Why not use diamonds in the trees? 

These people had enough to go and buy ancient debris so surely they could spare some diamonds to hang from the treetops. Heck maybe they had an unlimited supply and Fundy just hadn’t found it yet.

Except he had. 

He had gone up the steps of the town hall and he managed to catch a glimpse of huge shimmering mass inside the building. 

Surely not. Right? Right?

He went up the steps and his knees almost gave up. 

In front of him stood a huge throne made purely out of diamond blocks. It was so massive that it took up pretty much all of the first floor of the building and rose up to the second floor effortlessly. 

Fundy’s jaw fell open for what must have been the fifth time that day and he just stared. 

Taking in just the scale of the chair in front of him was absurd, nevermind it was made completely out of diamond blocks. In his observations he noted that on one side of the gigant thing there was a futon with a cat on top of it.

Huh. So even cats got expensive things in this world. Sure. Why not?

He took a step closer to the throne and was tempted to mine into it. It couldn’t be solid inside, because if it was, Fundy was just going to have to get a vase and break it to process just how ridiculous the Hermits were. 

He stood in front of it and took his picaxe out of his inventory. He chipped at the block until his inventory picked it up, and right behind where the block had been, he saw another diamond block. He took a deep breath, placed the diamond block back on his place and he walked over one of the bookshelves that were near the staircases. He took a single book and threw it to the floor. 

He had no way of processing this. He physically couldn’t. He thought that after being handed three stacks of diamonds and seeing an ancient debris shop with his own two eyes he would be done with surprises. But this entire day had proven him wrong. The giant buildings were one thing but the throne made out of diamond blocks was something more tangible to observe and it still didn’t make sense. 

How many were there? Like four thousand or so diamonds just… sitting here? In a room? Making up a throne? With a cat casually napping on top of it?

Maybe he had a concussion and this was all in his head and he was going to wake at False’s base any second now. 

Yeah that sounded right.

‘Hello there!’ 

Fundy jumped at a new voice greeting him and he turned around, just to be faced by a tall man in a blue striped suit and a monocle. 

‘I didn’t mean to scare you! Sorry!’ the man quickly apologized before noticing the book on the floor ‘Oh so it was you! Well guess Jellie’s treats are safe then’ he said looking at the sleeping cat on the diamond throne

‘Uhm’ Fundy didn’t know if he should introduce himself or what to do. The man probably thought he was crazy now since he had just thrown a book on the floor for no reason.

The man looked at him again and seemed to realize something ‘I haven’t introduced myself! How rude of me!’ He offered a beaming smile to Fundy at the same time as he extended his hand ‘My name is Scar’

Fundy noted the actual scars on his face before shaking his hand, there was something eerie about this guy but he couldn’t exactly pinpoint why. 

His teeth did look a tad too sharp to be fully human be he was one to say that considering his fangs were pretty impressive too. Maybe it was how the corner of that smiled curled slightly as if waiting to turn malicious at any moment. 

‘I’m Fundy’ he answered still trying to find a reason behind his sudden panic

‘You are Iskall’s guest then! Grian told me about you!’ the brunette said with a kind smile that the fox couldn’t help but find threatening somehow. 

‘Yup. That’s me’ Fundy said trying not to feel awkward but he couldn’t help it. He was getting weird vibes from this stranger and Scar seemed to notice. 

‘I only came down here to check if Jellie had made a mess again’ the suited man said before picking up the book from the floor ‘You are free to go if you want, you know?’ he said placing the book back on his place

Fundy let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding in and started walking out of the town hall, where he saw Iskall back in the main street looking for him, he looked back to see the brunette petting the cat asleep on the throne one last time before dashing down the stairs.

‘Iskall!’ he shouted to get their attention

Iskall turned around to look and approached him, so Fundy stopped once he got to the end of the staircase

‘What did you think of our Town Hall?’ Iskall asked

‘Very filled with diamonds’ Fundy stated and they nodded, laughing in agreement ‘That’s probably the best way to put it’ 

‘We are going back to the base’ Iskall said approaching the nether portal ‘Need anything from here?’

‘Nope. I’m good’ Fundy said, approaching the portal as well, looking one last time to Town Hall ‘What’s the deal with Scar?’ he asked 

Iskall stopped in their tracks

‘What?’

‘I just meet him. And he gave off very creepy vibes’

The cyborg just looked confused and Fundy feared he might have imagined it and he was making a fool of himself

‘He... He smiled and it felt threatening’ Fundy tried to explain

That seemed to click in Iskall’s head ‘Oh! Don’t worry dude. That’s just Scar being a Vex. He just has that eerie air all the time but the more you talk with him the less noticeable it gets’’ Iskall explained walking to the portal again ‘He is a really sweet person, there is nothing to fear’.

‘Oh’ Fundy said following Iskall to the portal before getting teletransported

‘None of us notice it anymore’ Iskall said the moment they came out the portal 

Fundy walked out of the portal just to notice the structure around it and the scale of the building and the portal. 

‘Are you going to complain about the portals too?’ Iskall asked looking at him

‘Nah. I had enough for one day’ Fundy answered, to which Iskall smiled

‘Let’s get to my base’ they said patting Fundy on the back and making an inviting gesture with their hand to follow them.

After a short trip through a tunnel made of crying obsidian which Iskall called ‘the hyperlink’ they arrived at a gigantic structure that housed six portals. The cyborg explained that those would take them to their neighbor’s bases and walked over to their own portal followed by Fundy. 

He stepped out of a regular nether portal back in the overworld, and he found himself inside a gigantic tree. 

‘Welcome to the Omega Tree of Doom, aka. My base’ Iskall said proudly walking outside the room and into the main floor of their base

Fundy followed him, taking in the sheer size of the place. The moment he stepped outside what was probably a root he saw the canopy extending upwards.

Was this what ants felt when they looked up a tree? 

Fundy kept looking up, seeing the vertical staircase that looped around the canopy all the way to the top. 

‘How long did you say it took you to do this?’ Fundy asked still looking up

‘A couple of months, but I was only working very intensely for some weeks’ Iskall said walking over to the staircase

Fundy saw the four beacon beams and he looked around, identifying that they came out of a hole in the center of the floor. He approached it just to be greeted by a gigantic pile of diamonds with beacons on top of it. 

‘Fundy!’ Iskall called him, already up the stairs

The ginger just looked at the pile for a moment longer, blinked and shook his head with visible disbelief before walking towards the stairs and calling out:

‘How many diamonds do you have?’ 

‘According to my diamond counter I’m on 2104.’ Iskall explained cheerily, waiting fo Fundy to catch up

‘How?’ was all the fox managed to ask before arriving besides Iskall and prompting them to keep walking up the stairs

‘Did some serious mining trips. That's where my 2k diamond challenge comes from actually’ They explained ‘Also a bunch of Hermits played my mini game in the shopping district many times. Apparently it’s addictive.’ they laughed. ‘That helped a lot too’

So these people managed to gather two thousand diamonds in a single mining trip. But okay. It’s not like that was the weirdest thing he had seen today.

Fundy didn’t know how but at least a lot of things started to make a little bit more sense. Like the gigantic diamond throne and the way they treated the shiny rocks as nothing more than decorations. 

‘I see’ Fundy answered, still trying to process just how long their mining trips had to be for them to accomplish that. He stopped in his tracks when he bumped into Iskall

‘Sorry’ he apologized

‘It’s okay’ Iskall said standing in front of a door ‘Here is your room!’ they said while handing some keys to Fundy 

Fundy looked at the keys before picking them up. He stared at them for a bit before opening the door.

‘I just figured it would be useful having keys in case you would like to lock your door’ Iskall explained as they saw the way Fundy hesitated before opening the room

But the fox paid no attention, taking in the cozy locking room he stumbled upon. He walked forward to discover a fluffy carpet covering the wooden floor.

‘I’m not that good with inside decorations so I asked Grian for some help’ Iskall continued to explain to fill the silence since Fundy didn’t even seem to notice them there.

Fundy found four chests already placed for him, a nightstand and a door that led to his own bathroom. And the very comfortable looking bed didn’t pass him either. He flopped into it immediately. 

Iskall just looked from the door and chuckled a little at the fox antics, although his lack of response was a tad concerning so they spoke up.

‘Do you like it?’

Fundy turned around to lay down on his back ‘Are you kidding me? I love it!’ he declared before sitting down in the bed with a big smile 

Iskall sighed in relief ‘Glad you like it’

Fundy passed his hands through the soft blankets while focusing on the keys Iskall gave him ‘I don’t think I have had such a place for me before’ he said absentmindedly.

Iskall’s face fell. 

‘What?’ they asked softly, concern in their voice.

‘Eh. You know. When I started living with my dad he never gave me this much privacy since he was always all over the place’ Fundy said, swinging his legs at the edge of the bed distractedly ‘Then I got my own place but Dream would come so often it didn’t feel private either. And then my dad died and now he is haunting my house so he never leaves me alone either’ Fundy snorted humorlessly. ‘He dies, and he still doesn’t let me be alone. Classic, dad’ 

It was Iskall’s turn to be left speechless. Suddenly the fact that Fundy had called from a bunker made a whole lot more sense. Their heart sank, and before thinking more he was hugging the fox.

‘Iskall?’ Fundy asked, confused. The cyborg backed off and smiled lightly 

‘Welcome dude. I’ll be downstairs if you need anything or want to go somewhere else’ they said with a smile before leaving the room and closing the door behind. 

Fundy just smiled and laid down on the bed contently again,thinking of the plans he could make before night fell.

Iskall in the meantime went down the stairs, determined to find out more about Fundy’s world. Eventually they would see what Fundy was dealing with exactly. See what they were dealing with, and then they would finally be able to help him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everybody! Thank you so so so so much for all your support and comments! <3
> 
> Thank you Lin (@ivorylin) for helping me out! 
> 
> We have a bit of a build up chapter this time!
> 
> Hope you enjoy it! :3
> 
> Cw. cursing

Hbomb was calmly fishing in his lake, away from all the political ruckus he had somehow managed to avoid. Despite living at the edge of L’Manberg and frequently visiting this lake that was not that far either, everything was calm here. He was vaguely aware of what was going on but he couldn’t tell whether a new conflict had started or ended. At this point he didn't even bother, as there was at least one thing going on at all times. 

It wasn’t exactly what Dream had promised when he talked about his 'little world to just build your house and live calmly in between adventures’ but he had managed to keep his relative peace so he just sighed and enjoyed his little area. In comparison to all the shit other inhabitants of the world regularly found themselves in, that was a win.

He brought his mind back to the activity at hand. Fishing was a perfect outlet to enjoy the calm and unwind from the constant fighting that kept breaking out around him. He never got involved but it still took a toll on him. 

But he could forget all about it in this quiet mirror of water, it was just him, the moon, the stars, the turtles, the fish, and Ghostbur. 

Wait- Ghostbur? 

He squinted and managed to identify the ghost sitting by the edge of the lake, it’s incorporeal form more transparent than usual. He rolled up his fishing line and set his rod aside, rowing closer.

‘Hey Ghostbur!’ he called out. 

The ghost lifted his eyes a little to look at him before standing up and floating towards the boat. He didn’t even mutter a single word, uncharacteristically serious in his eyes.

‘How is it going? Came for a late night stroll?’ Hbomb asked with his characteristic cheery attitude.

Ghostbur just floated all the way to the other side of his boat and further materialized there, settling behind Hbomb as a light weight. 

‘Not many words today?’ he asked, surprised by the lack of words by the poltergeist. 

‘I’m just thinkin’ Ghostbur answered quietly, not turning around to look at Hbomb 

He could guess the reason behind the quiet state of the ghost easily though, and inquired: 

‘What’s got you worried?’

‘I can’t find Fundy’ Ghostbur responded solemnly

‘Did you check his house?’

‘I saw him there yesterday’ a pained tone took over Ghostbur’s voice, ‘but he was crying and he looked really sad and scared. And then he ran away from me.’

The ghost was visibly upset. 

‘Sounds like Fundy just wanted to be left alone’ H said in an attempt to comfort the ghost ‘I don’t think he has something against you specifically, Ghostbur’

That was an obvious lie, nearly everyone around had seen how progressively annoyed Fundy had grown of the ghost of his father.

‘Maybe. But I haven’t seen him since then and I’m worried’

Hbomb wondered if telling a sad ghost that his son was just avoiding him would be a bad idea, it would probably upset him more but it could also ease his worries. Might as well try, he thought.

‘Maybe he is just hiding for a while. Taking a break, getting some fresh air. Surely when he feels better he’ll show himself again’ he said as gently as he could. 

‘No one has seen him! No one inside the walls! No one in the badlands! And I’m running out of places to look for him.' Ghostbur raised his voice for the first time since he had arrived at the lake. 

Well that was weird. Wasn’t L’Manberg surrounded by obsidian walls nowadays? They had just exiled Tommy over it, surely it was a huge deal.

‘I’m sure he is probably somewhere just chilling’ Hbomb said, more to convince himself than Ghostbur at this point. At the same time, he took out his communicator to call Fundy. ‘I can give him a quick ring if you’d like.’ 

Wilbur didn’t answer, so Hbomb just went ahead anyways. Fundy was listed in his contact list as offline. That was odd in and of itself, but it got even more weird when he tried to call the fox. 

‘Your administrator clearance is insufficient to make this call’, a monotone voice informed him.

That could only mean Fundy was in a high security place, which there weren't that many of. He didn’t even remember seeing the fox leave the world, so he should logically still be on DSMP somewhere...right?

Hbomb frowned while he opened the public world log and searched through today's backlog of information. Wilbur had seen him yesterday so there should be a message of him leaving today. But he found none. 

So his memory hadn't betrayed him. Huh. 

He knew Fundy had a higher admin rank than him so maybe he had just blocked off all communications or he had tinkered with his communicator. But if that was the case, this was a rather serious measure to keep people from talking to him - and H wasn't even sure it was possible.

Maybe he should go and ask Sam if someone could actually mess with their communicator like that, before he started to really panic.

‘Maybe he is just on Eret’s castle’ the man said, trying to find an explanation to this while simultaneously getting rid of Wilbur to go search for himself.

‘Why would Fundy be in Eret’s castle?’ the ghost asked cluelessly

‘Didn’t Eret adopt him?’ 

The weight at the other side of his boat disappeared. Hbomb mentally facepalmed as he said the one thing that had consistently upset the Ghost. 

A very displeased and sad Ghostbur was floating in front of him now, and H sighed and looked up.

‘Why would Fundy search for Eret if he is upset? He can talk with me!’ the ghost complained. 

Hbomb knew exactly why, but he didn't plan on upsetting the ghost even further

‘Well I wouldn't know. I just figured that it was a place you haven’t searched yet so there is a chance he is there, isn't there?’ 

Ghostbur crossed his arms in consideration.

‘I can go ask Eret if he has seen Fundy. Would that help?’ Hbomb asked. 

The Ghost became a tad less transparent. He didn’t smile but at least he looked a little less upset.

‘Yes that would actually help, thank you.’ 

‘Awesome!’ Hbomb said, exaggeratingly overjoyed, hoping to lift the spirits up of the spirit in front of him.

How ironic, he almost chuckled. 

‘Give me a sec while I pack my things and I’ll go right away.’ 

‘That is very nice of you, yes'’ Ghostbur said, floating away. 

‘Wait where are you going?’ H called after him.

‘I haven’t checked on Techno yet. Maybe he has seen him’ Ghostbur said while approaching the shoreline

‘Ghostbur I doubt that- ‘Hbomb tried to explain but the ghost was already too far gone.  
\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘Iskall I can’t open an investigation on DSMP’ Xisuma’s voice came through their earpiece ‘Especially not if we helped one of its inhabitants leave without going through hubs or updating information’ 

‘It isn’t illegal, technically’ Iskall replied, walking in circles in front of their diamond counter while they waited for it to count the latest diamonds that had entered to the system 

‘Well, technically it isn’t. But- ' the cyborg could hear the other sigh. 'The thing is, it won't help our case if I go around looking through their logs. If they see Fundy is here… It will just turn into a diplomatic disaster.'

‘But you used to do that! That’s how you got a bunch of Hermits here!’ Iskall tried to argue.

‘Those Hermits renounced their world and became members. Fundy is just a guest’ the admin reminded him with endless patience. 

‘Isn’t Dream like on all of the watchlists of the Interplanetary Alliance?’ Iskall asked, not trying to hide their annoyance. 'Surely- '

‘He is. And yet he hasn’t broken any rules. If I ask to open an investigation on his world, other administrators will want to know my reasons for doing so, and the only reason we have is Fundy.’ The admin explained ‘And once again, it won’t be looking good for us.’ 

Iskall groaned in a frustrated fashion. They just wanted information, it's not like they were planning on commiting a hit against the admin of another world.

‘Let’s say I do open an investigation and the Alliance overlooks the fact we have Fundy because he came willingly’ Xisuma thought out loud ‘what will happen when they question how we manage to teleport him across half the known universe without using hubs?’

Iskall knew exactly what would happen if Grian’s actual nature got exposed so they just stayed quiet. They could argue a lot of things but not against that.

Xisuma waited for an answer until he realized the silence was one of defeated acceptance, so he in turn gave a half-hearted smile and offered his most empathetic and gentle voice ‘Why do you need information about DSMP so badly?’

‘I just want to help him’ Iskall answered ‘and I can only do so much when I work with the small snippets of information he's given me from time to time. I don’t know how or why but I’m sure there's something wrong in his world’ 

Xisuma chuckled lightly.

‘X?’ Iskall asked, confused.

‘Well you don’t need his world’s log to help him. He is right there in your base Iskall’ Xisuma explained as if it was obvious.

‘But. I just CAN’T ask him! What am I supposed to say? -‘Hallo Fundy! Mind sharing your probably traumatic past with me?’ Iskall replied clearly not getting where the admin was going with this.

‘You don’t need to know what happened to be able to help him. Just talk with him, set boundaries and see if he needs help with something, you know? And check if he wants that help in the first place.’ 

‘But what if I overstep?’

‘He’ll let you know’

‘But-’

‘Iskall have you spoken to him about this?’

The cyborg just stayed quite realizing they were being a spoon. He had managed to bring Fundy here after talking over the phone, surely another conversation wouldn’t kill either of them.

‘Iskall?’ the admin asked when he was met by silence.

‘I’m an idiot!’ Iskall complained.

Xisuma only chuckled lightly ‘Aren’t we all?’

‘I’m dumb, and you are smart. Let's leave it at that, I gotta go speak with Fundy!’ Iskall replied searching for their rockets to get out of the pit. 

‘Alright! Goodbye, tell Fundy I said hi’ Xisuma said before hanging up.

With one rocket Iskall was back at the main floor of the base and they looked up to see if Fundy’s door was open. That wasn’t the case though, so they climbed up the stairs and stood in front of the fox’s room, hand hovering over the oak door to knock. 

They hesitated for a bit but then they heard the sound of paws approaching the door, so they backed off just in time before a frantic Fundy slammed into them.

‘Iskall why are all my contacts blocked?!’ Fundy asked, anxiously shifting his communicator between his hands.

‘What?’ the cyborg asked.

‘Yeah I tried to text my friend Nikki to let her know I’m alright but it doesn't let me! And I tried clearing all my privacy settings so it must be the server blocking me’

Iskall took a couple of seconds to process what was going on. They were going to talk with Fundy but he had come out of his room complaining about his communicator. Okay. 

Any chance of conversation was delayed then, tech assistance took priority apparently.

‘What does it say when you try to send a message?’ they asked

‘It says ‘This user doesn't have the authorization to engage in this network’ what does that even mean?’ Fundy asked. 

‘Exactly what it says. Your friend doesn't have any admin training, I suppose?’

‘No, she doesn't.’

‘That' s it. We have a high security network that blocks everyone who isn’t an admin at some capacity’ 

Fundy thought about that for a second before looking back down at his contact list. Everyone in DSMP was blocked aside from Callahan, George and of course, Dream.

He promptly corrected that and manually blocked Dream as well as George before looking at Iskall again.

‘Is there a way I can go around it? I don’t want my friends to worry, and I don't want to message either of the admins’ 

‘Sorry dude. Nothing I can do about that,’ Iskall said, not missing the way Fundy’s ears dropped. ‘You okay?’ they asked, immediately worried.

‘Yeah. I just hoped I could talk with them… but it's okay don’t worry’ the fox flashed a small smile that didn’t do much to hide his disappointment and only served to alarm Iskall further.

The cyborg immediately placed a hand on Fundy's back to try and comfort him. ‘I can’t help with that, but I can help you with any plans you have, you know."

Fundy hummed in a questioning way.

‘Well for your vacations of course! We can continue touring the world and visit other hermits or you can tell me something you’d like to do and I’ll see what can be done.'

‘Is there like a really chill place I can go fishing at sometime? Just all day, uninterrupted?' Fundy asked, his face brightening up a bit.

‘I might have some ideas for that. How much do you like dogs?’

‘I’m more of a cat person but dogs are sweet. Why?’ 

‘Just considering places’ Iskall answered, wondering if Joe would be fine with letting Fundy spend a day at his base. 

They hummed thoughtfully before continuing. ‘Anything else in mind? We still have like an hour or two before the sun sets.' 

‘Are night plans off the table?’ Fundy asked, wondering if his idea to go to the top of the Omega Tree to stargaze was a bad idea.

‘Well… preferably. We have a bit of a problem with phantoms since nobody has a good sleeping schedule’ Iskall admitted chuckling lightly ‘But you should be alright if you have sleep well in the last three days’

Fundy thought about it. He had definitely not slept a complete night due to the stress, but he had slept. So he was probably going to be alright.

‘Why don’t you get rid of the phantoms?’ Fundy asked considering DSMP had been successful in that aspect

‘We do kill them when they bother us, can’t do much aside from that’

Fundy was going to argue that if enough phantom nests where destroyed they would leave them alone but that only had worked since Dream had destroyed all phantom nests in a rather large ratio and looking at the way the Hermits built, they would probably need to cover a stupidly big area. 

‘You all should sleep better’ the fox opted to say instead

‘If we did then who would build for us?’ Iskall replied while giving a cheeky smile 

Stories of Technoblade farming potatoes for weeks straight and forgoing sleep just to keep a small advantage just to win a competition came to Fundy’s mind. 

Huh. So the universe had more insane people in it that he had first though. What a scary thing to think. 

‘Probably you, and dealing with less phantoms’ Fundy said and Iskall smiled in return

‘Maybe, guess we'll never know’ the cyborg joked

Fundy left out an amused huffed.

At the end Fundy opted to save all plans for tomorrow since he had enough for one day and Iskall looked like they could use maybe 12 hours of sleep or more. 

He settled down with being toured around the gigant tree, taking a long pause so Iskall could explain their diamond counter and the redstone behind it. Fundy didn’t understand much about it but Iskall seemed happy to explain and also it was a way to kill some time so the cyborg would tire themselves out and go to sleep. 

They were surprisingly stubborn in that regard.

The stars had already come out, but Iskall seemed to still have enough energy to keep going for hours. Fundy could probably go on for an hour or two more but he really wanted for the Hermit that had taken him under their wing to get some rest. He hadn’t had such a positive presence in his life and dammit! He would try and care for them even if that wasn’t enough to ever repay them. 

So he yawned.

‘Oh. Are you tired?’ Iskall asked

‘Yeah. A bit’ Fundy said 

‘You had a long day dude. You should go to sleep’ Iskall said with a kind smile

‘Yeah. You are right!’ Fundy said, yawning again and seeing how Iskall also yawned in return ‘We should go to sleep’

‘Yup!’ Iskall agreed while turning around and walking towards their storage system ‘I’ll just finish some blueprints for Pacific and I’ll go to sleep 

How in Void’s sake did they find things to do instead of sleeping?!

‘Iskall you should probably sleep too’ Fundy said

‘I will. Don’t worry’ Iskall smiled 

The fox was convinced he was being lied to, so he used his secret weapon. Being annoying 

‘What if phantoms come down the canopy and destroy my door and bite me because they were looking for you?’ he said putting a fake afraid voice

‘Fundy of course not. That’s not-’

‘What if a meteor falls and you are too sleepy to actually run away so I have to drag you?!’ 

Iskall catched on what was going on and groaned annoyed  
‘Fundy-’

‘What if you are too sleepy and while you nap in the afternoon someone steals diamonds from you? Or what if you are not available so I have to go with Grian in adventures and is dangerous? Or-’

‘Fine! I’ll go to sleep!’ Iskall complained ‘would you stop?’ they asked

Fundy smiled in return, dissolving Iskall’s annoyance and prompting them to huff and place a hand on top of his head endearingly.

‘You are so annoying’ they said without a hint of malice

‘I know’ Fundy admitted while enjoying the positive attention.

Iskall removed their hand just to pat Fundy softly on the back ‘go to sleep’ they said before walking in direction to the root that had their room.

Fundy kept the smile on his face while walking over to the staircase to climb up. Not to his room but all the way up to the top. He would go to sleep soon enough, after seeing if the stars looked any different from this side of the universe.

He had underestimated the climb, reaching the top of the canopy 15 minutes later and panting slightly.

Building things like this was no joke if Iskall could climb this without breaking a sweat. Maybe he would become a builder just to get fitter and rub the fact in Quackity’s face. Yeah that sounded like a plan and a half.

A gust of wind threatened to blow his hat off so he saved it in his inventory and held tighter to his jacket. Maybe this had been a bad idea, but he forgot about it when he stood at the very top.

The open sky greeted him with its vast expanse of nothingness lighted up only by millions of small flames. He had enjoyed star watching back when he was a kid since his mother taught him how to use the celestial bodies to orientate himself. And then he had enjoyed it again in DSMP as he could sit down in a field and stare at the eternal expanse and lose himself for hours, far from all his worries. 

But now it was different. It was the first time he had been so high up and even if that height didn’t bring him any closer to being able to touch the stardust with his hands, it did make the whole experience much grander. Much more exhilarating to all his senses.

He took a deep breath and felt the cold air rush down his lungs and breath life into him. That’s when he realized that up here the only sounds keeping him company was the whistling of the wind and his own breathing.

He was there with himself and for himself. Alone facing the sky, probably a universe away from his friends and his home. This moon different from the one that saw him in pieces just the day before.

Perhaps he was still afraid, and he still had many doubts, but at least for today he would overlook all of that and focus on himself, and everything that had happened in almost one day of exploring a new world. 

Everything was different, the rules, the expectations, the builds just where their own thing but most surprising of all. The people were different. The Hermits were different, because they cared.

He had been under their care for less than a day and yet they cared, they cared so much he probably couldn’t really understand it. But he didn’t need to. He just needed to know they cared, and countless times through the day they let him know. 

Fundy took the collar of his jacket and stared at the HC pin that remained there. The same Grian sport on his sweater, the same False had on her jacket, the same Xisuma had engraved in his armour, the same Iskall had on their vest. And the same he would probably continue to see in the upcoming days. 

That made him feel comforted for some odd reason. 

But this world was odd for itself so he decided to not dwell on that and just enjoy the feelings of belonging it brought him.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Happy New year!
> 
> As always thank you so much for your support and your comments, they always bright up my day :3
> 
> Thak you Lin (@ivorylin) for beta reading and editing <3
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter!
> 
> Cw: cursing

Even if Logstedshire rested near the sea, the sea breeze didn’t reach Tommy in his little camp. Under other circumstances he would have been happy to stay awake late talking with his friends besides the campfire. But he was all alone in the dark.

Or so he hoped so.

As soon as he could he went to sleep, not really exhausted but bored and trying to get his overseer to leave. 

He argued that Dream only checked on him when he was doing stuff. So if he didn’t do anything Dream would have to go.

Besides what would be the point of him staying close for the night? He had proved already he probably didn’t sleep as he had catched Tommy every single time he had tried to leave camp at night.

No matter if he left at 9:00pm or 4:00 in the morning, Dream was always right outside the camp to stop him and force him back.

Tommy hadn’t been able to find a pattern, it looked like Dream was just always there, waiting for him. Or somehow knew he had left. But no matter how much he traversed the nearby woods he couldn’t find an explanation as to how Dream knew. 

Maybe the fucker was just using admin privileges to know his location at all times. If it was the case it was basically abuse of power and also super creepy. 

The teen tried to think why Dream would spend so much time trying to seclude him to one location. Why not just… keep him away from L’Manberg? It was his exile! HE should get to choose where he stays. But moving was impossible

At this point Tommy had given up in escaping at night. He decided that sleeping was a better time investment but the paranoia of getting caught remained. He almost felt the ways the darkened, prying eyes of the mask looked at him and bore holes into his back, despite sleeping shielded by the fabric of the tent.

At least when he got caught he had the certainty Dream was there, but tonight he couldn’t close his eyes. Dream was probably out there waiting for him. But what if he wasn’t? What if this was the night he should pack everything and run but he didn’t because he feared getting caught? Surely it couldn’t be, he had tried to escape the watchful mask for five days in a row now, surely Dream was hiding and waiting to ambush him for a sixth time.

Or maybe he wasn’t, and Tommy was just afraid of nothing and wasting his chance.

The endless cycle of questioning kept him up. If he did try and got caught again then he would know for sure, but his things would get destroyed. And he didn’t want Ghostbur’s gift to get taken away, besides that would undo all the progress he had made by collecting wood and crafting items. Dream could have his armour but he had worked for that wood!

Who was that fucker to take it from him?

The same fucker who had turned his friends against him. He remembered, sliding a bit more into his blankets, and holding the compass closer to his heart. 

He hoped Tubbo could rest at least, and wondered what Ghostbur had done with the cookies he had given him as a thank you for the gift. 

Hopefully he visited again soon.

Being alone with the metallic smile haunting his mind was definitely not fun. 

And if the haunting hadn’t been that strong Tommy would have noticed that Dream wasn’t actually waiting for him. 

In fact he was far away, back in the Community House that had belonged to him once before his world had flourished so much. 

Dream needed free time in the following days so he had made sure Tommy would stay put while he sorted the world out. He needed time to actually help with the preparations for his own wedding after all. 

But no. Everyone had decided to cause a ruckus last week and he had to go and solve it. He needed to apologize to Fundy for leaving all the last minute preparations to him. Void he must have been so stressed. 

He sat besides the now empty fish tank of the second floor, staring at the world's log. Reading through all the status reports on the world was always tedious but today it just felt eternal. He had never liked large pompous events, but he knew how much effort Fundy had put into their wedding and how excited he was, and he couldn’t help but actually look forward to it even if it was just to see his fiancé happy. But damned administrator tasks!

He should be planning something special for Fundy! Maybe just a trip to the beach to help him unwind before the big day, far from all of this nonsense. 

But the admin work just kept piling and piling and the problems kept appearing out of the blue. 

Paperwork could get under the skins of even non mortals apparently. 

And it didn’t help that everyone seem so eager to destroy the peace he was trying to sustain. 

Everything quieted down after the destruction of L’Manberg and a seemingly more organized group had rebuilt it on the crater.

That had been fine. 

If they had stayed put he would have tolerated them. Giving them independence once before kept them quiet for years, giving them another grace period could be promising. Afterall no one would look at the mayhem and decide it was worth stirring conflict again.

He snorts humorlessly at that, because that had worked out  _ brilliantly,  _ hadn't it? No one seemed to have any sense of self preservation or common sense in this world. They seemed to crave the war and chaos the way moths crave light.

First it was the attacks on George. Then, when all he had done was trying to protect them from the backlash brought on by the rogue and unaligned that just wanted to cause damage, his friends had turned against him and distanced themselves - their way to repay him, apparently.

Fine. Whatever. They might be angry, but they were safe and Dream could live with his friends hating him if that kept them safe. That was what mattered after all, wasn't it?

And then Tommy had gone and stirred the pot again.

Why was the kid like that?

He was fed up with it. Everyone else would stay put after a lesson or two but the kid would just come back more emboldened than before.

For how smart he was he spent his time doing the most idiotic things, Dream thought idly.

Oh, and how much time he spent thinking, planning, like that. He thought about how to react to certain things, how to treat certain people. He thought about how finally putting his foot down would suffice in drowning everyone’s nonsense.

And yet here he was, having gone weeks without actually seeing Fundy because he had to keep track of everyone and everything and keep Tommy in check and-

Couldn’t all this wait? Why did it even happen at all?

Why couldn’t anyone help him with this? He just wanted peace and quiet. That’s the only reason he had gone through all the hassles of getting a world assigned to him. 

He sighed. A break, he needed that as well. 

Void, he just wanted to crash at Fundy’s place and cuddle with him. The way he had looked at him after his outburst had broken his heart but...it had been justified! As things like this tend to go, Fundy was part of the cabinet and he simply got upset. Dream couldn’t blame him, really not, since literally no one deserved the lock down, but Tommy had just been so selfish that there was no other way to get this through his thick skull.

If Tommy could just behave. Void, so many problems would disappear, wouldn't even have come up if the kid was capable of just  _ shutting up. _

Why did the Void below gift such a talent of speech to such a little selfish brat that couldn't even take anything seriously? And why, why did he have to drag people that just wanted peace and quiet into his crusade? 

Dream sighted again and tried to focus on the task at hand before he got angry again. It was fine. Everything was back under control, and he just needed to finish with his admin duties for today.

That was it. 

The rage fueled rant he had let out in his head had completely distracted him from paying attention to the world's log.

He took a deep breath to focus again and dive back into it. He paused for a second when he encountered the strange error message he had seen at noon once more. 

‘Unknown object has been detected near the world barrier, 4̸̝͓̊̏̃͜,̸̘̤͋̕͘͝9̴̗͗̽-̵̛̼̙̃/̷̬̯̮͌̎͊&̷̲̮͍̭̀́̓̏0̵̫͙͚̫̍̇0̴̧͚̺̓͐͌͝0̸̦͖̼̎̇0̶͎̘̼̦͐͂̈́̑0̸̭͑0̴̣͙͉̆͊̈́̔0̶̪̗͔̈̌͐̅0̸̢̣͙̐-̷̼͉͙̆͝ ̵͕̫̜͋̀̃͜ ̵̢̦̯̥͒́̎ ̸̧̛̇̿ ̵̥̕3̵̨̼́2̴̧̼͈͉̚ ̴̡̳͚̭̅͐͒̈ᒲ̶̪̉̄͗ ̶̢͗͗͝ͅ/̵̼̓̐͝͠0̵̈ͅ.̸̱̤̋̈́̍̀0̸̢̅0̵̼͙̥̎̃-̷͎̳̇̿̆/̶̢̩̱̍̌̈́!̸̼̲̎0̵̼̃0̶̬̭̈́͘0̸̬̇͝0̵̱̣̰͝0̵̛̳̳͕̻̈͐0̶̞̌2̸͙̜̓ ̵̩͇̞͒ᒲ̸̗͘ meters away.

Dream focused on the warning message that had lasted less than three seconds. It was probably nothing, but the odd display of coordinates unnerved him somehow. He decided to look into it more after he finished going through the log for the day.

20 minutes later he was getting sidetracked again, so he decided to call it a day. He spared a quick glance at the personal logs of everyone in DSMP, it looked like nobody had sustained significant injuries in the last 24 hours. That was good, that might just become a new record.

He rushed to close that screen to focus back on the odd coordinates, not even taking in how Fundy’s health status hadn’t been updated in the last day. 

The proximity sensors had warned about the possibility of an object approaching his world at precisely 12:47 pm, but even if the object had passed at high speeds it didn't explain the jumbled numbers. 

Dream stared at it for long trying to figure out what had gone wrong, the data had gotten corrupted but why? 

He thought about it, but it didn’t make sense so he opted to look at the source directly: The logs of each sensor individually. And he found something interesting.

Only two sensors had detected the object, the most western sensor noted it’s coordinates as ‘4900 meters away’ while the other sensor that was adjacent to it detected the object as being ‘-320 meters away’.

While negative readings usually meant the object had actually entered the atmosphere, Dream still failed to make sense of the readings. The data had to have been damaged as the two coordinates were registered at the exact same second. But that was impossible...

Dream figured that the only way was if the object had travelled at light speeds or higher but then the sensors wouldn’t be able to detect it...Dream groaned.

This was a major failure in the system if he had ever seen one. 

He ran a hand through his hair. Another thing to worry about, great.

He stood up and picked up Nightmare from where he had left it on the floor and hung it over his back, still staring at the screens. 

It was probably a hardware problem he would have to solve. Eventually. 

Yeah, he could solve it later. This was a safe part of the universe, it would be fine for now.

Then, he closed all the projected screens and gathered himself to go to L’Manberg to tear down the wall. He had gotten so caught up with Tommy’s exile that he had delayed getting rid of the obsidian perimeter, but he figured that getting rid of it would help calm down everyone in the small nation. And probably himself as well, repetitive tasks did help ease his nerves. 

He walked towards L’Manberg, relishing in the light breeze that blew his cape back a little.

He enjoyed the wind so much. It was probably his favourite thing about the overworld. That, and grass. Laying in grass was just the best. Maybe he was a cat after all. 

He chuckled, his friends often joked about that even if it ended up annoying Antfrost - the real cat of the friend group.

Dream chuckled at a memory of the group joking around at a campfire after one of their manhunts. 

And then he sighed again. He missed those moments. Ant and Bad were faraway in the Badlands and George and Sapnap were angry at him. 

He couldn’t show it but he did miss his friends.

Once again stupid political turmoil got in between of his ambitions and his desires. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fist and let it go before it could get to his nerves, as he always did.

He should worry one thing at a time, first take down the wall. 

On the horizon, said wall could already be seen, so he turned his attention to it instead.

He was going to tear it down and tensions would fall, surely that would do the trick.

No more attempts at rebellions and hopefully no more fighting. Fundy had spent a lot of time planning their wedding and Dream wouldn’t allow another petty fight to ruin it. 

Sure, Tubbo and Quackity were probably going to get mad about it but they couldn’t do anything significant to ruin it, especially if they saw how upset that would make Fundy.

So many things had spiralled out of control and he had only barely managed to drag them back. But not this. It had to be perfect. 

If the L’Manbergians were truly Fundy’s friends, they wouldn’t try anything stupid to ruin it. Everyone else was sensible enough to stay put, or at least Dream hoped so. 

Well no one outside L’Manberg had any reason to ruin it besides Tommy, but he wouldn't be attending the party. Dream smiled a bit under his mask while he approached the obsidians walls.

Things looked dire but if he thought about it positively he had to admit he had managed to get everything under control just in time. Now all that was left was to get rid of the wall, hand over the invitations to make it clear everyone invited was to be there and then he could pick up Fundy and leave to relax for a day. 

Maybe going to the north for a day on the beach could work. As far as he knew, no one had settled there. Setting camp on a secluded beach sounded like a great plan since Fundy had always liked the sea and it seemed to calm and comfort him. 

The thought of his fiancé, smiling and blinking lazily at the sun, his unseen smile turned tender.

He could almost imagine it, the soft breeze blowing at Fundy’s ginger locks, a soft smile pulling at his lips accompanied by the little happy ear twitches he always did when he was content. Excitedly pulling him by the hand to the probably freezing water. 

Dream closed his eyes and stood there savouring the precious image. Then, he took a deep breath and continued his way to the walls, until he faced the purple structure. 

He jumped easily up the height of the wall and landed on top of it. Standing up, he looked down at the landscape. Everything was quiet within the walls, the only lights in L’Manberg where the ones illuminating the paths. It looked as if everyone was asleep. 

Dream spared a look at Fundy's house and noticed not a single lit up window there either.

He considered teleporting inside for a moment to check on him. But he ultimately decided against it since for some reason Fundy had been deeply upset the last time he had teleported inside his house despite doing so multiple times before without any reaction. 

He had concluded that the outburst was probably just due to Fundy having a bad day that one time, and that had been two months ago, so it would probably be fine teleporting in now. But with the wedding this close, Dream decided it was better not to risk it. 

He walked over the perimeter deciding to start chipping away at the side of the wall furthest away from all the houses. It was probably going to take him a couple of hours to tear them down but if he could just focus on a repetitive task for a bit to clear his mind from all the problems everyone had caused this last few weeks. 

It would be wonderful. 

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Techno was sleeping comfortably in his retirement home, the freezing arctic sustained an eternal white mantle around him that drowned all the sounds. He could enjoy a peaceful night of sleep as for once, there wasn’t a storm roaring outside. He had been tightly asleep, up to the moment he heard someone calling his name.

‘Techno!’ 

The intonation was familiar and the tone wasn’t threatening at all. And yet it woke the pig hybrid immediately since he had never known what was to be a heavy sleeper. He sighed and walked over the windows to stare outside and find out who was calling him. 

He squinted, surveying the white landscape until a faint shade of yellow in front of his house caught his attention.

‘Techno! Hi!’ the cheery voice called.

‘Ghostbur, why are you here?’ Techno asked, his voice still dripping with drowsiness, more to himself than to the ghost that was quietly floating in his front yard.

‘I have to ask you something!’ Ghostbur explained floating up to the second floor to look at Techno.

‘Can’t it wait? It's like 1:00 in the morning, Ghostbur’ Techno protested while backing off so the ghost could enter his property ‘Some of us don’t have eternity to float around and collect items.’

‘No I can’t wait, this is important’ Ghostbur complained, floating through the window and finally settling in front of Techno ‘Were you sleeping?’

‘No Ghostbur I wasn’t. I was obviously up, living my life in pajamas as everyone does at three in the morning'’ Techno deadpanned.

‘Great! I have to ask you a something’ 

‘Ghostbur I was being sarcastic of course I was-’ Techno stopped when he saw the ghost had a sad face. 

He just sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. ‘What do you need to ask me?’

‘Have you seen Fundy?’ 

Techno didn’t expect that question so he eloquently asked ‘Huh?’

‘He was upset yesterday and he ran away and I can’t find him and I’m very worried’ Ghostbur explained

Techno looked at the ghost for a good minute. 

‘Techno?’ 

‘Ghostbur. Why do you think I would know where Fundy is? No one except you and Phil even knows I live here, besides we aren’t exactly on speaking terms’ 

‘He was pretty upset so I argued he would go searching for one of his uncles’

‘Ghostbur I’m not-’ Techno sighed, he was too tired to deal with this at the moment ‘No. I do not know where Fundy is nor have I seen him.’ 

The words seemed to weigh heavily on the ghost. His face went from sad to distraught, his form going almost transparent. His boy wasn’t here either, then where was he?

Techno caught on that something was wrong, and as the great conversationalist that he was he asked

'What is it, you concerned?’ 

Ghostbur just hugged himself searching for any type of comfort.

‘I can’t find him Techno. He isn’t in L’Manberg, he isn’t in the Badlands, he isn’t out here… I don’t know what else to do.’

‘Are you sure he is not back with the others?’

‘No. I asked everyone’

Techno thought about it before asking

‘Did you ask everyone at the same time?’

‘No? I asked everyone as I came across them, some time yesterday.'

‘Well. What if you ask again? Maybe the people you asked before have seen Fundy since the last time you asked them, you know?’

That seemed to relight the hope in Ghostbur's face as he became more visible once again

‘That could work!’

‘Yeah!’ Techno said with just the smallest hint of enthusiasm ‘Why don’t you go back to L’Manberg to ask?’ He said clearly trying to get the ghost to leave so he could go back to sleep

‘What if you ask through your communicator? Then I could check immediately!’ Ghostbur proposed with a bit of enthusiasm.

Socializing by call and/or text? Techno wasn’t about that if he was honest.

‘Because it is 1 am, everyone is asleep’ he argued ‘if I send the message right now no one is going to see it. Why don’t you go back to L’Manberg and ask someone there to do you that favor when it is morning? Then everyone will see it and they’ll answer at the same time’

‘That sounds like a good plan! Thank you Techno’ Ghostbur said definitely looking better

‘No problem. Now can I go back to sleep?’ Techno pleaded

‘I thought you didn’t sleep’ the ghost admitted

‘I do sleep, just not often… but I’m trying to change that’ Techno explained missing being asleep

‘Well. Bye bye Techno! Good night! Thank you!’ The ghost said as he phased through the wall possibly to go back to the civilized part of the world

Techno sighed and went back to his bed, somehow even more exhausted from what he had been just minutes ago. He could deal with the ropes of war but family drama? He was not equipped at all to deal with that. 

Less talking with people, even if it was just Wilbur. 

He shook his head a bit and went back to sleep. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Dream.... am I right ;3 
> 
> If anyone is curious as to how Dream masks looks you can check some concept art I did for it here https://ivi-prism.tumblr.com/post/638986339430318080/every-time-i-see-dreams-mask-im-like-how-does
> 
> As always thanks for reading :3


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! 
> 
> Sorry this chapter took a bit more than usual! New semester is comming up and I have to pay attention to that.
> 
> As always thank you for your comments and your support! I appreciate it so much <3
> 
> Thanks to Lin (@Ivorylin) for beta reading and editing
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter!

The sun peeked over the horizon, even reaching the houses in L’Manberg now that the wall had almost disappeared in its entirety. 

Dream had arrived at L'Manberg close to midnight and had been mining obsidian for six hours straight. It wasn’t the best activity for his back but between a couple of regen potions and leaving before sunset with Fundy to set camp far away in the north on the beach side he would be alright. 

Besides, it was good exercise after the last weeks watching and containing Tommy. Running after the teen was good exercise but not nearly enough. 

If only he could get a chance to completely detransform to stretch properly. That would probably help with the back pain as well. But that wasn't exactly an option right now. 

He kept on chipping at the wall, the sun would soon rise completely and then everyone would be up and running around. And he needed to hand out the invitations as soon as possible. 

At around three in the morning he had found out that Phil was actually in L’Manberg, and the winged man hadn’t stopped looking at him for the last three hours or so.

Dream didn’t find it unsettling as he himself was used to watching people from afar for ridiculous amounts of time. He was just curious.

Was Phil plotting something? Or was he simply observing out of curiosity? The man was probably mad at him for driving one of his children away but Dream could let it slide since Phil was one of the few reasonable people that stayed in place. 

Additionally, once Tommy learned his lesson, there wouldn’t be anything stopping Phil from just going to see the kid. Until then it was better if he just stayed in L’Manberg anyway.

Dream spared him a glance once and Phil just looked at him in return, expression unreadable. So he just kept on working, he would be done soon. It was only a matter of less than an hour until he finished the last three layers separating him from the floor. 

Phil hadn’t had a chance to sleep either. He had spent the whole day with Techno and had flown over Tommy’s camp to have a quick look. Finally, he arrived back at his house in L’Manberg, just to see Dream tearing up the walls. 

It was bizarre, to say the least. The admin had disappeared for weeks and suddenly he was back mining the walls, all in one single go.

He must have some plans then. And Phil was determined to find what those plans might be. He kept a careful eye on the masked man, expecting something. But Dream simply took down the walls, in complete peace.

It was so suspicious. He was definitely up to no good even if getting rid of the walls was in theory something positive.

It was too sudden. 

And Phil didn’t have enough information to anticipate anything the masked man could do either.

He had seen everyone in L’Manberg just the day before and no one on Dream’s side had entered the small nation. So something else must have happened. 

But it couldn’t involve Tommy since it wouldn’t make sense to tear down the walls put in place to pressure him into exile. Or maybe it did.

Was this a ploy to pressure the boy into something with the leverage that the wall was now gone? But one of the first terms was that Dream would get rid of them if Tommy left and he had failed to fulfill that until today.

The chances of it having to do with Tommy were small, but not non existent. But what had more chances of happening? What else? 

Phil didn’t like any of this one bit. He decided that, as soon as Dream left, the best move would be to gather all L’Manbergians to try and figure out whatever the admin was doing. Or just to try and keep the others safe, he would decide about that later.

He sighed. Exhaustion from lack of sleep and worry that kept his mind racing with possible awful things Dream could do now. But he needed to stay awake. Needed to stay vigilant and alert the others in case something where to-

‘Hi Phil!’ 

Phil just blinked, surprised at the sudden voice before turning around to see the ghost of his son looking at him.

He didn’t hear him approach at all, even as a ghost, Ghostbur was difficult to miss. 

‘Hello Ghostbur’ Phil greeted back, his expression relaxing the tiniest bit. It was always nice seeing his son again.

‘Are you hiding from Dream?’ Ghostbur said approaching the window and looking out ‘He is really scary, I don’t blame you.’

‘Nah. I’m just trying to figure out what he is doing’ Phil explained while backing off from the window and leaning on one of his chests. 

He needed to sleep  _ so _ badly.

‘It looks like he is mining the walls’ Ghostbur answered, looking at the window some more before turning around to look at his father. 

‘Yep. He is taking them down’ Phil responded, sighing heavily while looking up at the ceiling. He thought for a bit before looking at Ghostbur again. ‘Do you, by any chance, know why?’ 

‘Not really. I just came to L’Manberg one day and there were walls!’ Ghostbur explained, floating closer to Phil now. 

‘I went back and forth a lot and now the wall is almost gone. But I don’t know why, no.’ 

Phil gritted his teeth. Wilbur was probably doing his best to keep Tommy company, he reminded himself. 

It pained him not to go see his youngest, but he knew that visiting would just make Dream retaliate by hurting Tommy. At least Ghostbur was tolerated there.

‘How is Tommy?’ Phil asked.

‘Oh he is great! He set up a camp and we talk often! He has told me he has tried to leave to look for a new place to spend his vacations but Dream keeps stopping him’ 

Phil sighed again. Frustrated. 

‘At least you are keeping him company. Right?’

‘Yes! I just gave him a compass and he gave me cookies in return!’ Ghostbur said, smiling broadly, blissfully unaware of Phil's concerns.

That brought slight relief to Phil. Tommy was a tenacious boy, but Phil knew well enough what prolonged isolation could do to a person.

Phil wondered if the sixteen-year-old ever asked about his friend. He was about to voice his question when Wilbur asked him something instead: 

‘Have you seen Fundy?’

‘Huh?’

Phil looked at him confused, so Ghostbur explained.

‘I was going to ask you yesterday but I couldn’t find you. I saw Fundy two nights ago but he ran away from me. And nobody has seen him since.’

‘Oh really?’ Phil asked, surprised ‘I just saw him yesterday morning before I left to visit Techno.’ 

‘Really?!’ Ghostbur said, approaching Phil and grabbing at his shoulders ‘Where is he?’’ 

‘Whoa. Calm down. I don’t know where he is now. I just saw him yesterday with Ranboo’ Phil said before realizing that was weird ‘wait you said that, since then, nobody else has-‘ 

‘Where? Where did you see them?!’ Ghostbur asked almost desperately.

‘Right here, in L’Manberg. I saw them chatting with Nikki on her doorstep before Ranboo teleported them away.'

The second the words had left his mouth, Ghostbur rushed to the wall and phased right through it. He left behind a very confused Phil, who blinked a few times, trying to process what he had just witnessed. Void below he needed sleep.

He finally came to the conclusion Wilbur had just gone to ask Ranboo directly where Fundy was.

And he was right. 

But something didn’t add up. Phil had seen the two of them near nine in the morning. If Ghostbur was completely serious and nobody had seen Fundy for an entire day then something surely must have happened.

Phil spared a glance to his window again. Dream was barely two rows away from mining the entire wall completely.

This wasn’t good. Fundy’s disappearance most likely had to do with Dream, the two events had happened less than 24 hours apart. 

Oh no.

Phil would have exited the house to follow Ghostbur, but Dream would surely see him doing that, and he wasn’t about to give him any reason to provoke him. 

Damn it! If only he could teleport.

He gave it a few tries trying to summon the magic he no longer possessed. 

At the third attempt he gave up and decided instead to rummage through his chests looking for an ender pearl. 

———

‘RANBOO!’ Wilbur shouted while phasing through the wall of Nikki’s house and right to the young enderman’s room. ‘Ranboo where is Fundy?!’ 

The enderman hybrid jumped out of his bed startled and teleported right outside of his room by accident. He hit the floor hard.

‘Ranboo, hi’ Ghostbur said phasing through the door ‘Sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you.'

Ranboo only mumbled in response and tried to sit down again, but his vision grew blurry so instead he sunk back down on the floor. Light purple particles surrounding him, not good. Those should have disappeared by now. 

‘Ranboo?’ Ghostbur asked carefully, approaching the teen.

‘Ranboo, what happened?’ Nikki's voice asked, sounding drowsy. 

Ranboo tried to talk but between his blurry vision and another attempt to sit up, the world spinning around him picked up speed again so he just whimpered and decided to just stay on the floor.

‘Hey...Ranboo?' Ghostbur tried again, now floating closer to look at the hybrid.

Ranboo closed his eyes and took a deep inhale ‘Hi Ghostbur’ he said softly.

‘Hi!’ Ghostbur greeted back, before looking up when he heard steps approaching

Nikki arrived at the hall and immediately rushed at the side of her brother when she took in the scene in front of her. 

‘Can you talk?!’ she asked panicked 

‘Yep. I’m fine…’ Ranboo said slowly, gathering himself enough to try sitting up for the third time. 

‘Hi Nikki!’ Ghostbur greeted, cheery as ever.

‘Hello’ she answered hesitantly, more concerned with helping Ranboo. ‘What happened?', she wanted to know, 'Did you teleport?’

‘Just from my bed. I got scared’

‘I didn’t mean to scare him!’ Ghostbur said, backing off a little.

‘How are you feeling?’ she asked, not even bothering to answer the ghost.

‘Just a bit dizzy’ 

Ghostbur could feel the siblings ignoring him so he backed off further for good measure.

‘You should lay down for a bit’ Nikki suggested, still worried, trying to keep him from standing up.

‘No. It's okay. I'll just….chill here.’

‘Stay there’ Nikki demanded

‘Let me go to the sofa, maybe?’

Nikki thought about it for a bit before standing up from where she was kneeling and helping her brother up.

‘Are you sure you are okay?’

‘Yeah. Don’t worry. It was like… nothing. I’m good now’ Ranboo assured her 

Ghostbur backed off some more as to not get in their way to the living room.

‘I’m going to get a regeneration potion’ Nikki said ‘Lay down and stay there’

‘Nikki it's okay, really!’ Ranboo protested, lowering himself on the sofa before laying down ‘Really I’m fine’

‘I’m still going to get a regeneration potion, and there's nothing you can do about it.’ Nikki said before heading back to her room.

Ranboo just sighed and closed his eyes. Between the small commotion he had almost forgotten Ghostbur was even there until he spoke.

‘Ranboo are you okay? I really didn’t want to scare you’ the ghost apologized.

‘I’m okay Ghostbur, don’t worry. I’m just… super tired. But I’m okay. And i know it was an accident’

The ghost hesitated for a bit before approaching a bit

‘What happened?’

‘I overused my magic and I shouldn’t teleport. It could be dangerous’ Ranboo explained, staring at the ceiling 

‘Oh…. does anything hurt?’ Ghostbur asked

‘No, not really. I’m just dizzy’

‘Have some blue’ Ghostbur said softly while placing an almost translucent sphere in Ranboo’s hand ‘It could help you if something hurts’ the ghost said with a small smile

‘Thank you Ghostbur’ Ranboo replied, still looking up at the ceiling. He had no way to access his inventory at the moment so he just held it.

The living room remained quiet for some awkward minutes, where the only sound that reached Ranboo’s ears was Nikki rummaging through her chests. 

‘So… you wanted something?’ Ranboo asked trying to fill the silence

‘Oh yeah. Where is Fundy?’ Ghostbur asked ‘Phil told me he spotted you two together yesterday.’

‘Oh, Phil saw us?’ Ranboo wondered.

‘Yeah! He said you two were leaving Nikki’s doorstep’

‘Ah. That. Yeah, I found Fundy yesterday and invited him to have breakfast with us’ 

‘Where was he yesterday?’ Ghostbur asked, concerned his son could just disappear like that.

‘After you told us what happened, I told Tubbo and he told me to look in his bunker. And I did that first thing in the morning and I found him there’

‘Bunker?’ Ghostbur asked clearly confused

‘Yeah, Fundy built a bunker where the flag was and Tubbo told me about it’

‘Why… Why did Fundy build a bunker?’ Ghostbur asked, worry taking a hold of his voice.

‘ I supposed to be safe… or feel safe at least’ Ranboo answered wishing that the dizziness would go so he could look at the ghost properly.

‘But…L’Manberg is supposed to be safe. I made it so he would be safe! He shouldn’t have to hide!’ Ghostbur complained.

‘I’m just guessing. I’m not sure if he built it for that reason. But I don’t know for sure’ Ranboo tried to explain to try and soothe the ghost’s displeasure.

Ghostbur hesitated for a bit. He was still wondering why would Fundy run to a bunker. 

‘Do you know where he is now? I need to see him’

‘Fundy isn’t in DSMP’ Ranboo replied.

‘What do you mean?’ 

‘Exactly that. He left yesterday’

‘Why?’ Ghostbur asked clearly worried and becoming upset with every word that left his mouth

‘He was stressing out and got an invitation to another world. So he left for vacations. He’ll be back in a couple weeks’ Ranboo explained 

And he waited for Ghostbur to ask more questions, but he was met only by silence. He waited a tad bit longer but the only one that broke the silence was Nikki approaching.

‘I only managed to find a health potion but it should be enough’ Nikki said while walking through the corridor. The moment she arrived to the living room she hesitated for a bit

‘Ghostbur?’ she asked while handing the potion to Ranboo

The ghost was hugging himself and far more transparent than he had been moments ago, as she recalled. When Nikki called his name, he recoiled away from the siblings. 

Ranboo took the potion and drank it.

‘Ghostbur what happened?’ Nikki tried again, approaching the ghost 

‘I told him Fundy left’ Ranboo answered, sitting down, dizziness dissipating quickly. 

‘He just left for some weeks. He’ll be back. He is safe’ Nikki assured the ghost approaching once again.

But Ghostbur didn’t reply. 

Both siblings exchanged looks, worried now about the spirit.

‘Do you want to talk about it?’ Ranboo asked. 

Ghostbur just shook his head a bit and floated downwards, as if to disappear out of sight completely.

‘He wasn’t angry with you Ghostbur. He didn’t leave trying to avoid you. He really needs the break from everything’ Ranboo assured to answer the unasked questions Ghostbur might have

It didn’t work, instead the ghost snapped back, barely controlling his voice and refusing to look at them.

‘Why did he leave in the first place?! Why did he hide?! Why didn’t he talk to me?!’ the ghost asked, his voice disfigured by pain.

‘I’m trying! I swear I’m trying but Fundy won’t talk with me… what did I do wrong?! Why can’t I fix it?’ a sudden sob broke his questions, loud in the quiet living room. He continued to sob and hiccup, trying to regain whatever footing he had but ultimately failing. Not even after death could he escape all his regrets. ‘Why would he leave to another world instead of talking with me?’ 

Nikki wished she could hug the ghost, but his form wasn’t physical enough to do so, quite the contrary in fact. Ghostbur was barely visible at this point.

‘Ghostbur’ Ranboo said, still sitting down ‘I wasn’t here when you were alive, but from the many stories Nikki has told me… it looks like you had very good intentions in the past, you just didn’t execute them too well.'

Nikki turned around to look at her brother, giving him a look asking gently to stop, but Ranbbo continued.

‘What happened in the past, it still hurts Fundy. He has told me before. But in this case, it is what's happening right now that overwhelmed him. He hid because he just wanted time to piece everything together, that’s why he left. He didn’t leave the world to be away from you, Ghostbur’

Nikki got what Ranboo was trying to do, and she turned around once more to look at Ghostbur. The quite erratic movement the ghost had shown before which suggested he was sobbing seemed to slow down. So she took a step forward, determined. 

‘Fundy explained what happened, but we couldn’t do much but calm him down. All his worries are still very much real and the best thing he could do was leave,’ she said, hoping she could help the man that had been her mentor once. 

Ghostbur spared a glance over his shoulder to them. 

‘You two should talk. But this particular instance was just Fundy being fed up by everything going on’ Ranboo said, a little relieved the ghost was paying attention to them ‘You didn’t drive him away’ 

‘But-‘ Ghostbur was going to argue when they heard a knock. On the window.

All three of them looked around, just to hear it again on the second floor. They looked at each other before Wilbur phased through the ceiling to take a look, he came back looking a lot happier than he had been moments before.

‘Is Phil!’ he announced.

Nikki rushed up the stairs and opened the window. 

Phil struggled to fit his black jet wings through the gap but he managed.

‘Thank you Nikki. Figured Ghostbur was here… but Dream is outside and I didn’t want to take any risks’

‘Dream is outside?’ Nikki asked concerned while walking to the stairs

‘He is tearing the walls down. And he is almost done…. he mined obsidian all night’ Phil explained while following Nikki downstairs. 

Just to find a crying Ghostbur and a confused Ranboo in the living room.

‘Uhh. What in the world happened here?’

‘Fundy left for a vacation and Ghostbur just feels strongly about it’ Ranboo explained.

‘He went to another world instead of talking with me!’ Ghostbur whined. Approaching his father, he actually materialized enough to be hugged.

Phil just sighed and opened his arms for an embrace.

Ghostbur threw his arms around Phil and slouched a bit.

Since he was so tall Phil wrapped his wings around him as well.

‘Dunno why you are so worried. You did the exact same thing.’ Phil said, trying to calm down Wilbur.

‘But I didn’t go back when I left! What if Fundy leaves forever! What if he never speaks to me again?!’ Ghostbur asked, tears and sobs bubbling in his voice again. 

'He went on vacation. He left a letter saying he would be back in just a couple of weeks’ Ranboo explained. Again. 

‘But he ran away from me first!’ Ghostbur argued

‘He probably just wanted to be alone’ Nikki said

‘But he was upset! Why won’t he talk with me?’

Everyone in the room aside from the ghost exchanged glances, seeing as there was really no way of explaining things to Ghostbur without bringing up his alive counterpart. 

Nikki and Ranboo had seen how Ghostbur would just cycle through the same questions. And they were valid, really. But all answers required talking about Wilbur. Phil could read the atmosphere well enough so he proposed:

‘Ghostbur why don’t we sit down while you calm yourself a little? Nikki and Ranboo could explain what's going on in the meantime.' He offered to try and move the conversation somewhere else.

Ghostbur nodded softly and let go, while Nikki helped Ranboo to another chair in the living room where they sat down.

With Ghostbur besides Phil, who had wrapped his wing around him for some sort of comfort, he seemed to actually calm down a bit. The sobbing and hiccuping came to a stop.

Phil spared him a glance before looking at Nikki. ‘So. What's going on?’

The siblings explained in detail what Fundy had told them, showing them the letter and even revealing that Fundy was supposed to get married in two days.

This upset Wilbur even more because he hadn't been aware of that either but the siblings rationalized why Fundy would keep that hidden.

Phil in turn just remained quiet after that, until Ranboo managed to calm down Wilbur again with the blue the ghost had just given him moments ago. 

‘Was- was anyone else aware that Fundy was going to marry Dream?’ Phil asked, chuckling nervously, thoughts racing. 'That doesn't seem like the kind of thing you would keep a secret, does it?'

‘I know that Fundy told Tommy, and us. We don’t know if someone else is aware of it, apart from Dream obviously.’ Ranboo answered after a short period of time. 

Phil stood up and looked out of the window.

‘Phil?’ Nikki asked.

‘How fond is Dream of Fundy, what do you think?’ he asked, looking at the single line of obsidian that remained from the once so tall walls.

Nobody answered his question, so he decided to rephrase it. 

‘Do you think Dream will react negatively when he learns Fundy is gone?’

‘Well… I… I don’t know, honestly’ Nikki admitted ‘I was surprised they were together at all, they seem like polar opposites. I think Fundy cares to some extent… but I can’t say anything about Dream.’ 

Phil took all the information they had gathered. So Dream had pushed for the exile of Tommy in exchange of getting rid of the walls. That had effectively put everyone under his thumb. 

And only now, out of the blue had he decided to remove the walls, and give some liberties back to the people in L’Manberg. But the fact that he had done so just two days before his wedding with Fundy, and the fact that Fundy had ran away could only mean one thing. 

‘Something bad is about to happen’ Phil concluded trying to see where Dream was at the moment.

‘What do you mean?’ Ranboo asked

‘If Dream is removing the walls he probably has another way of keeping L’Manberg under his command. And that plan probably involves Fundy. 

‘But if Fundy isn’t here’ Phil turned around to look at everyone in the room with a grave expression ‘Then what is he going to do when he finds out?’

A silence settled down in the room. Nikki realizing that Fundy might have been right to be worried about leaving. 

Ghostbur now clearly knew why his son had left and that just worried him even more. 

Ranboo was the only one that spoke

‘Do you think he is going to do something drastic?’ he asked

‘I'm sure of it. He was willing to-’ Phil cut himself off before bringing that  _ particular _ topic up and just looked at Ghostbur briefly before correcting himself: ‘We know what he did just to have L’Manberg destroyed.’

If this plan of his got ruined by Fundy being absent, then who knows what could happen. Void help them all. 

As Phil considered it more, he realized he knew exactly what could- no,  _ would _ happen. All color drained from his face.

‘We should warn Tubbo and Quackity’ Nikki said.

‘I can-’ Ranboo tried to say.

‘No, you are still recovering. Stay here’ Nikki insisted firmly

‘But you can’t teleport!’ Ranboo complained

‘Neither can you right now’

‘He is going after Tommy’ Phil finally said. The siblings paused and looked at Phil.

‘But Tommy isn’t here, Phil, how-’ Ranboo said.

‘Dream might take it out on us when his plan fails, but Tommy is the most vulnerable right now’ Phil said, letting a shaky breath out before looking at Ghostbur ‘Ghostbur…how fast can you travel?’

‘Wait Phil!’ Ranboo tried to intervene

‘Not as fast as you… but I could be in Logsterdshire in two hours’ Ghostbur replied quietly.

‘Wait!’ Ranboo said ‘if Tommy leaves, wouldn’t that be suspicious?’

‘I don’t care! Tommy is an easy target being all alone!’ Phil replied, clearly worried now. He had lost one son already, he couldn’t lose the other one, less at the hands of the same creature. 

Phil wouldn’t allow it.

He turned to Ghostbur ‘Can you go and warn Tommy? I’ll follow you as soon as we warn everyone here’

Ghostbur nodded lightly. Phil turned around to look at Nikki ‘Aside from Quackity and Tubbo, who else do we need to warn?'

‘Ponk, Purpled, Karl and Jack’ she answered, certain that Sapnap would probably be alright if Dream were to go on a rampage.

‘Alright. I’ll go talk with Karl and Jack then’ Phil said on his way to the door.

‘I can go talk to Quackity and Tubbo’ Ranboo volunteered.

‘No! Ranboo!’ Nikki insisted

‘I won’t teleport again I promise, it's quicker like that anyway’ Ranboo said, already making his way to his room to change out of his pajamas.

Nikki just sighed and walked down the corridor to do the same ‘I’ll go to Ponk and Purpled then.’

‘Be careful, Dream is still outside’ Phil told both of them, before looking back at Ghostbur ‘Fetch Tommy and guide him to Techno’s house, if something goes wrong either tell me immediately or tell Techno to call me. Alright?’

Ghostbur just nodded hesitantly, it was clear he still wanted to say something.

‘What is it son?’ Phil asked, rushing to get moving before Dream finished.

‘This world, Hermitcraft, which Ranboo and Nikki talked about… do you think Fundy is alright there?’ he asked. Clearly still upset that his son had left, the ghost seemed anxious.

Phil had seen many worlds in his travels, but for some reason all 7 colonies of the Hermitcraft group had gone under his radar. 

The stories surrounding the group painted them as some of the most well versed and knowledgeable people on various areas, and having the endorsement of both Scicraft and the Interplanetary Alliance spoke volumes about the kind of people they were as well.

‘He is definitely safe. I can assure you as much. Whether he is alright though…all I can say is that anyone would be better being anywhere but here.’ 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I've got a notice! As you've seen the speed of update has slowed down to roughly one chapter peer week and it will stay like that from now on since classess start again next week! It might get even a tad slower than that but don't worry. This fic is getting finnished :3! 
> 
> In the meantime if anyone wants to talk or ask more stuff about the fic you can find me in tumblr as @ivi-prism 
> 
> As always thank you all so much for your comments! They keep me motivated to continue writting and also I just love seeing your reactions!
> 
> Special thanks to Lin (@ivorylin) for beta readding and edditing!
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter! :3
> 
> tw: brief description of animal death

The warm darkness that encased him slowly gave away to a slightly lighter room. The cozyness of the warmth remained, although it was strange as it was far warmer than usual. 

He turned around and stretched a little, poking a paw out of the warm bubble to a chillier but still hot atmosphere. 

Weird. Usually at this time of the day, the air would be more chilly, considering he always left his window open. 

Fundy looked up just to find a taller headboard than usual and no window, just a wall made of oak wood instead of spruce. 

He blinked once, confused, and reached to his communicator on the bedside table. The moment he turned it on he saw the way the letters HC were displayed in his background instead of the monotone blue it usually showed.

And then his head caught up to reality. He was in the Omega Tree, in the middle of a jungle in Hermitcraft. 

Quite far from home. 

He yawned and laid back down, enjoying the warmth. It would probably become too much in a couple of minutes but for now the little cocoon of blankets remained comfortable. 

And he stayed there, staring up at the ceiling for a while, prolonging the quiet moment as he usually did. Content to stay in the dizziness of waking up just that little bit longer.

Sometimes the exhaustion of a day settled deep within him and he valued the precious moments to rest just a little bit longer before having to face it all again. 

He enjoyed doing projects with his friends, or pursuing his own. Even going on an adventure from time to time was an exciting idea. But suddenly he felt as if he hadn’t had such a quiet moment in so long. 

And that might just be the case with the constant stress of the last few weeks, or maybe even before that. 

He sighed and turned around again, trying to ignore how the warmth encaising him felt a lot like waking up having Dream in his arms. 

He didn't want to think about him, at least not yet. And thankfully a knock on his door gave him a reason not to. 

Fundy sat up silently and waited for a couple of seconds to make sure he hadn’t just imagined the sound. At his movements the person at the other side of the door knocked again. And so Fundy stood up, stretching a bit to distract himself of the loss of warmth. 

He walked over to the door and opened it, to find Grian. 

‘Hello Fundy. Good morning’ Grian greeted him almost whispering ‘Did you sleep well?’

Why was Grian in Iskall’s base? 

‘Uhm… yeah… yeah I did’ Fundy answered, confused.

‘Iskall is still asleep’ The blond declared ‘I made breakfast! And I’m inviting you to come along!’ The short blond said with a smile.

Fundy just looked at him. The red sweater had been replaced with a red jacket and white t-shirt. But more noticeable, a pair of bright red and brown wings sprouted from the blond’s back. Actual wings, unlike the seemingly detached purple glowing ones he had seen just the day before.

‘Are you coming?’ Grian asked cheerfully, probably ignoring the way Fundy was looking at him.

‘I…. have to shower’ Fundy said, not having anything else to add besides ‘Why do you have wings today?’

Grian blinked and chuckled slightly ‘Rockets are too loud, and I didn't want to wake up Iskall so I went with a quieter alternatively’ he answered before taking out his communicator ‘anyway, I’ll write the coordinates down for you so you can come by later.' Almost immediately Fundy’s communicator pinged with an incoming message. 

‘See you in a bit! Don’t take too long or there won’t be pancakes left’ Grian joked before taking off. Indeed the flapping of his wings was quieter than the rockets he would have used otherwise.

Fundy stood on his door staring at the space the blond had just been a moment ago, looking at the few red and brown feathers he had left on the spot. He shook his head and went back to the room to pick out clothes and go shower. 

It wasn’t the first time he saw shapeshifters. He should focus on going wherever those pancakes were waiting for him instead of pondering whatever Grian was.

And so he did. 

He got ready in record time and ran down the stairs to exit the base by foot and get far enough to fly with his elyta. Once he reached the main floor he passed briefly by Iskall’s room and saw that the cyborg was still asleep. 

So he tiptoed out of there and entered the jungle. The morning sunlight almost immediately engulfed him fully and he closed his eyes and enjoyed it for a moment, before continuing on his path to get breakfast. 

A few steps away from the entrance of the trunk, he looked at the coordinates that seemed not to be that far away and oriented himself before taking off, making sure he gained enough altitude not to hit a tree. He didn’t need a second crash in two days, thank you very much. 

At least in the ocean he would have been spotted quickly, but here in the jungle, between the trees and the gigantic temple, he would have gotten lost with near certainty. 

He saw it yesterday from the top of the canopy and spent a good while looking at it before heading down to sleep. Only now when he had the chance to see it in the light of day it dawned on him just how big the temple was. And as things went here it was probably another base built by another Hermit. 

He had started to become desensitized to the size of the structures but this one in particular had so many details in it Fundy felt, for lack of a better emotion, anger bubble up in his chest again. 

Why in the world would someone spend so much time building a base? Didn't these people go on adventures? Did they do anything else aside from building? How long did it even take to collect all the materials to build these things? 

Also it looked like they went by this ‘gentleman rules’ Grian had described earlier but even if no one would explode their bases why put so much time into them? It wasn’t as if it was a life project for Void’s sake! These people had colonized many planets and by the looks of it they would continue, so why put so much effort into all of these things they would leave behind?

Fundy flew closer to the grand old temple and realized the central piece at its top was a giant, golden heart. Well that was weird as hell. 

He flew closer to take a look and only when the sound of palpitations reached him, it hit him. 

The golden heart suspended by chains was beating. 

He landed right in front of it and observed the metallic organ's gentle beating.

It was quite horrifying to see but at the same time it was really intriguing. The sound it made was synthetic and yet alive enough to believe this thing had been ripped out of a gigantic creature. 

Fundy stepped forward. The fact an old temple had a beating heart at it’s top and was surrounded by modern structures did make him doubt for a moment if this thing was actually a base instead of something made to contain or preserve something. 

But as he walked closer he heard the unmistakable sound of pistons firing and retracting. They were a tad difficult to hear beneath the beating sounds but they were there.

So this thing had been made with redstone. But why?

He approached it carefully and noticed the water stream pouring out of the heart and down the base. 

Didn’t redstone circuits get ruined by water?

He got even closer, kneeling to see where the water went, it looked like the stream went all the way down through the structure.

Fundy considered flying down and inspecting the place a little more closely, but his stomach grumbled and he remembered he was supposed to be eating pancakes right now. So he backed off and looked at the coordinates again. He had gone in the wrong direction anyway. But he just had to investigate this further.

On his way towards what he assumed was Grian’s base he spotted multiple giant glass butterflies floating over a lake and a village. He was tempted to land again, but he was also really hungry so he continued flying until a gigantic mansion filled his entire field of view. 

He landed on the top of a tree to stare at it in awe. 

This was the first base he had seen that seemed to favor design as well as scale. And it was messing with his brain again. Surprisingly, the coordinates didn’t take him inside the beautifully constructed structure, but rather just in front of it. 

He looked to the side and saw a clearing right beside the flattened terrain accommodating the mansion. He flew down and discovered what seemed to be a normal base. 

Although it was completely dwarfed in comparison to the Victorian build that lurked near. 

Fundy glided down until he landed. Only now he began to take in the height of the thing. He was appreciating as well how the railings seemed to be made out of anvils.

Just how much iron was needed for that?

He just huffed. It was early, he had seen a temple with a beating golden heart and a stupidly big mansion and he was hungry. Enough for one morning.

He focused his attention to the clearing instead, spotting what looked like a base of some sorts carved into the mountain with some pretty wooden details poking out the stone. 

Fundy glanced one last time at his communicator to confirm that this was in fact the right place. And it was. 

He stored the rockets back in his inventory and took off the elytra while walking inside the place where he was greeted by a cozy looking place made entirely of wooden planks.

It was very pretty, and it looked a lot like his room in the Omega Tree so Fundy assumed Grian had built the entire place. In his exploration he stumbled into a little den with grass, leaves and a lot of bars and branches going from wall to wall. There were blue and yellow feathers dispersed everywhere as well. He also noticed a container full of seeds. 

So it was a nook for a bird? 

He didn’t have to keep wondering for long as he heard quiet tapping noises on the floor just in time to see a blue and yellow parrot approaching him.

Fundy stood frozen in place staring at the small bird, fearing he would scare it but absolutely taken aback at how cute the tapping sounds were. 

The bird looked at him, shifting its head curiously, until it jumped up and positioned itself on Fundy’s hat.

Fundy froze completely. Feeling how the animal shifted on his hat was weird, until it seemed to settle down. 

And unexpectedly, the parrot started cooing. 

Fundy wished he could take a picture right now but he was afraid of startling the bird if he moved.

So he stood there, resigned to his fate as a bird post now. It wasn’t that bad, the little fella was really cute and Fundy hadn’t really interacted with parrots much before.

Although it was pretty weird it kept cooing, but he didn’t question it.

After almost two minutes of standing there, he heard steps and Grian poked his head through one of the end of the hallway.

‘Aha! I heard Profesor Beak and I couldn’t figure out where he was!’ Grian approached with a smile ‘seems like he found you Fundy!’ The blond said grinning and extending a hand 'Hey buddy! You didn’t ask if you could climb up there, did you?’

The parrot stopped cooing and looked at Grian, clearly hesitating. Then he continued as if nothing ever happened.

‘Huh’ Grian said. His expression turned to a worried one.

‘Something wrong?’ Fundy asked.

Grian blinked and quickly laughed again ‘Yeah, it just seems Profesor Beak is staying up there for the time being’ he said, pulling his hand back 'Let’s go!’

‘But-’

‘No worries. He’ll stay there if he wants to, I always walk with him on my head or shoulder’ Grian remarked while walking to what Fundy assumed was his kitchen, and so he followed suit.

Surprisingly, the large red and brown wings were nowhere to be seen now. 

Had he shapeshifted just to have a quick way to find him? Well if Fundy had shapeshifting powers he would also use them for silly things so whatever, he supposed.

‘Is the mansion outside your base?’ Fundy asked, still looking around the place.

‘Yup! That 's my base!’ Grian said proudly

‘So… this is...?’ 

‘Oh, this is just my starter base’ Grian answered nonchalantly ‘We often create a small base when we arrived to a new world while we get settled down and get resources to work on our main base’

Fundy gritted his teeth. 

Small? He hadn’t looked around but it looked like this place had at least two floors and many parts branching off. This would be a very cozy place to have back in DSMP. And here it was just… a starter base? What?

Grian turned around to look at him.‘You okay?’ he asked.

Fundy’s ears perked up ‘Yeah! Just… you guys are insane! It is kinda maddening how you do all this stuff and then dismiss it’ he said with a huff ‘Your ‘small base’ would be a really nice place back home.’ 

Grian eyes shot upwards before returning his attention to Fundy: ‘Really?’

‘Yeah… we don’t have that many builders back home’ Fundy admitted ‘The ones we have aren’t even official like you guys.’ 

‘Well not all of us are official builders either' Grian explained, walking towards the kitchen once more ‘Iskall for example is a redstoner’ 

‘They built a giant tree!’ Fundy replied, lifting his hands indignantly.

‘Still a redstoner’ 

‘But-’ Fundy was about to throw hands when he entered the kitchen and found Scar sitting at the table with the same cat of yesterday draped over his shoulders, although the striped blue suit had been replaced by leather pants, a dressing shirt, a jacket and… a cowboy hat?

‘Hello!’ the brunette greeted from the table with a cheery smile.

  
  


‘Hi’ Fundy greeted back, surprised he hadn’t heard him before.

‘Scar, have you met Fundy?’ Grian asked while approaching his kitchen to take a tray of pancakes out of an oven where he had placed them to preserve their temperature.

‘Yes! Well more or less… we saw each other yesterday in town hall.’ Scar clarified ‘ I supposed I spooked you a bit?’ He asked, looking at Fundy

‘Yeah. But it's okay ’ Fundy said, still feeling uneasy near him.

‘Sit down! I’ll be right there!’ Grian said.

Fundy awkwardly sat down besides Scar, who just chuckled lightly.

‘Are you of few words? Or are you just spooked?’ Scar asked gently.

It was quite jarring beings so uneased by a person with such a gentle voice. But Fundy couldn’t help it, something in his brain told him that calm voice was trying to lull him to attack him right when he let his guard down. 

‘I’d say a bit of both’ Fundy lied. He was usually more extroverted but the chilling feeling that something was wrong kept him at bay. 

Profesor Beak suddenly jumped from his head and accommodated himself on Fundy’s shoulder instead, tucking his head in the crook of the fox's neck. He was surprisingly soft and continued chirping softly. 

‘Oh’ Scar replied seeing that, he leaned back on his seat a bit ‘I can assure you, this little missy right here is way more dangerous than me’ he said, gently scratching the grey cat between her ears and smiling. ‘Also if you feel safe around Gri then you have nothing to fear. He is the worst out of all of us’ 

‘Hey!’ Grian replied, coming back from the kitchen with a tray of pancakes ‘Rude.’ 

Scar just giggled in return ‘How many wars have you started again?’

‘For your information Mr.Goodtimes, I have only started two wars’ the blond replied going back to the kitchen to fetch the other things. 'That's not that bad!'

‘That's two wars too many’ Scar replied.

Fundy listened in silence. 

What?

They lived with wars here too? Is that how Scar got his actual scars? Why would Grian want to start wars? Over what? 

‘You have had wars?’ Fundy asked.

‘No serious one's, of course.’ Grian was quick to clarify ‘In our last world, we pranked eachother so much we just had to have a prank war to resolve it’ He crouched to reach something from a lower cabinet before standing up again. ‘Scar here sold armour and TNT to both sides and then commented on the events like it was a sports game.'

Scar just shrugged at that ‘There was profit to be made, and it was a lot of fun for everyone, too, so why not?’

A game? 

‘What about the second war?’ Fundy asked, trying to get a sense of what these people referred to when they said ‘war’.

‘We are actually in the middle of the Turf war right now’ Grian admitted cheekily.

‘What? Why?’ Fundy asked confused, nothing on the last day suggested they were at war with each other.

‘The shopping district is a beautiful place thanks to me’ Scar explained ‘but some rapscallions are trying to replace the grass with mycelium. And as mayor of the shopping district I cannot allow that.’ he said, nodding solemnly.

Grian rolled his eyes.

They were fighting over… grass? Also, they had elected positions? Well they did have a town hall and a diamond throne but it was still odd. 

‘So… you are fighting over how your shopping district should look?’ Fundy asked baffled trying to see if he understood.

‘Yup!’ Grian said, approaching with mugs of hot chocolate.

‘Yes. And G-man here is the leader of the resistance, that will lose eventually’ Scar quipped and Grian gasped offended, setting the mugs on the table. 

Scar smiled in return 

‘You keep on thinking that!’ Grian replied heading again to the kitchen counter to pick up maple syrup and melted chocolate ‘We will see who is smiling when HEP loses’ 

From what Fundy gathered. These two were on opposite sides of the war?

‘Are you fighting against each other?’

‘Pretty much, yeah’ Scar said.

‘Scar is the head of HEP and I’m in charge of the resistance’ Grian explained.

So, they were not only on opposite sides of a war but they led the opposing sides?

And yet they were having breakfast together?

Grian seemed to catch on ‘It's really just a squabble for fun! No matter who wins, the Shopping District stays with grass… because it is prettier in the end’

Scar gasped.

‘You didn’t hear that from me!’ Grian warned with a smile and Scar just nodded smiling as well.

Fundy saw the two of them share a laugh and Grian finally settled down on the table. 

‘Welp! I hope you like it!’ Grian said. 

The pancakes were delicious. Fundy was surprised at first. He covered one in chocolate and almost gulfed it down. 

He was tempted to give one of the pancakes to Profesor Beak, but Grian stopped him and instead placed a plate with smaller pancakes in front of him which the bird recognized immediately. He jumped down to enjoy them.

The breakfast went on and Fundy considered staying quiet like he had done the previous day. The fact the Hermits could talk like nothing was wrong even if they were at war with each other was mind blowing and it really bothered him, but both Grian and Scar roped him into the conversation anytime his mind wandered off on its own. 

He learned that Scar was a professional terraformer and builder, that the grey cat was his pet Jellie and just how many adventures they had gone on together. 

The man seemed very fond of the cat and Fundy couldn’t help but remember his own trio of cats back home. They were his only pets still alive, and surely they were better off with Hbomb. 

He sighed at the memory

‘Do you have any pets?’ Scar asked

‘Not at the moment’ Fundy answered ‘I had three kitties but it got dangerous to keep them myself, so I gave them to …a friend? I guess? I check on them from time to time… they are doing fine’ Fundy said in the least convinced voice.

A worried look took hold of Scar’s face but before he could say anything Grian talked.

‘Did you ever had any other pets?’

‘Well I had an arctic fox called Apples but she escaped… I hope’ Fundy paused for a moment too long before continuing.

‘There was also Beellon, a lil’ bumblebee and her swarm which I used to house with a friend. But a douche got mad at me and smashed their hive so probably all of Beellon’s swarm is dead… I also lost my skeleton horse in a war, I haven’t gotten any new pets since’ Fundy explained.

Scar’s expression was one of complete distraught, Fundy guessed that someone so attached to their pet would find it upsetting. Grian on the other hand didn’t even flinch.

‘But the cats are alright?’ Grian asked.

‘Yeah! Thankfully they are’ Fundy remarked looking at Jellie sleeping happily in the lap of her owner.

‘If you ever want to see some bees you should definitely visit Xisuma’s base! He has an entire tower that doubles as a honey farm and bee sanctuary.’ Grian explained ‘Oh! Or you could go to Beef’s place too, he has a lot of llamas!’ He added excitedly.

‘Joe has a dog sanctuary as well’ Scar elaborated, trying not to look worried ‘And Stress has a mean-y bear… I think’

‘Stress has a panda?’ Grian asked, surprised.

‘A brown mean-y bear yes.’ 

‘Why do you call them that?’ Fundy asked

Scar blushed in slight embarrassment which made Grian laugh.

‘He got attacked by a bunch of pandas when we first arrived at the jungle. He still holds a grudge.’ the blond explained, enjoying how mortified his friend looked.

‘It was a bunch of them!’ Scar complained ‘How was I supposed to know they would be aggressive? I just wanted to pet a baby one!’ 

Fundy smiled at that. He would definitely do the same thing given the opportunity.

Without noticing, the conversation moved forward, with Grian either skillfully pushing it away from anything upsetting, or tackling anything of the likes straight to allow Fundy to push it away himself. 

The pancakes were all gone and all mugs empty, but they all kept talking. 

  
  


Fundy told them of his endeavours as an administrator tasked with doing experiments in new planets to determine how the terraforming tools can affect it and what use it can be for new colonies. 

He shared one of his latest works with them, where he had decreased the temperature of a planet so much that when the experiment was done his fur and hair had gone white. 

Scar, ever the terraformer, thanked him for his work. Despite him not doing world altering work but rather decorative and _manual_ terraforming, some of the technology used for world scale editing did help him from time to time. 

Fundy dug deeper into that manual aspect only to discover that Scar had built multiple islands and mountains by himself without any technological assistance. And he closed his hand and slammed the table 

‘Why?! Why do that?! We have tools precisely so you don’t have to do that!’ Fundy whined. 

‘I like doing it myself. I think it's more precise and serves my builds better’ Scar answer.

‘B-But… but why not use terraforming tools and then fix whatever you’d like by hand!? Isn’t that easier?!’ Fundy asked, absolutely baffled.

Scar just shrugged in response ‘It looks prettier and more natural when I do it though.’

Of course the reason behind that nonsense was aesthetic reasons. _Of course_. 

Why else did the Hermits do ridiculous things aside from aesthetic reasons?

Fundy just looked at Scar, then at Grian who seemed to be on the verge of laughing, then back at Scar who was smiling apologetically and then he exhaled slowly, even closing his eyes to calm himself, before leaning forward.

‘Scar?’ he asked in the most level headed voice he could muster.

‘Yes?’ Scar asked back, still wearing a smile. Grian was openly snickering now.

‘Why?’ Fundy questioned.

Grian couldn’t hold himself together anymore and he laughed out loud. 

‘No! I’m serious!’ Fundy protested ‘Why, why put your body under all that stress of carrying materials, and why take all that time instead of doing other things? What do you win with this?’

Grian quipped still interrupted by laughter ‘Why not?’

‘Don’t give me that answer! False already said that!’ Fundy complained ‘Seriously if you want to build giant things then sure! But there are tools to aid terraforming, why not use them?’

Scar just smiled ‘I just love doing it all by myself. All the things I have done while being on Hermitcraft are a gift to the community. So it feels better to make them all by myself’ he admitted ‘And it's also a good way to keep my urges for chaos in check. ’ 

Fundy blinked at that. What? Urges for chaos? As if he had read his mind, Scar answered.

‘Using my magic to create things instead of destroying them is a more productive use for it, and it doesn't get all pent up like that. Because when that happens...’

‘Scar gets scary!’ Grian admitted half- jokingly, remembering Demise clearly.

‘But… as a Vex, can you truly control those instincts?’ Fundy asked.

‘Of course! My powers coming from chaos is no reason for me to use them against others’ Scar said before smiling ‘Besides, why go around ruining people’s days when I can make it better with some amazing stuff instead?’ 

Fundy smiled faintly at that sentiment, it was a really positive and hopeful one.

One he was not used to in the slightest. Techno would blame his bloodlust on his nether origins, while Dream would claim his need for control steamed from his nature as a voidwalker. 

But he had seen Grian use End magic and Scar was literally a Vex. And yet here they were, waging war against each other, and still being amicable enough to have pancakes together for breakfast. 

He felt lied to. An ugly taste settling on his mouth as well as some disheartening thoughts.

‘Fundy?’ Grian asked.

Fundy’s ears twitched and he snapped out of his brief daze.

‘Yeah! Sorry… I was just… thinking that… that is very nice of you to do, Scar’ he said, smiling to try and hide how he was actually re-considering a lot of things. 

Scar smiled back at him, a bright smile. The same he had given him yesterday but Fundy didn’t see any of the dangerous edge that had sent him fleeing out of the Town Hall. 

He had been truly deceived. Or maybe he was just that gullible that supposedly family saw no problem in lying to him. 

He wouldn’t be surprised for placing his trust in the wrong person. Again. 

Scar commented something, but Grian changed the conversation entirely ‘Would you like a tour around the jungle?’ he asked Fundy.

‘Huh?’ Fundy asked back, while Scar stopped his chatter and looked at Grian.

‘Yeah! I’m sure you haven’t seen all the jungle has to offer yet!’ 

‘Oh! We should add ScarX to the tour!’ Scar added excitedly.

‘You just want to flex!’ Grian shot back, before focusing back on Fundy 'So, what do you think?’

Fundy wasn’t sure why Grian had changed the conversation so abruptly, but it was a good offer.

‘Sure. Sounds fun!’ he replied 

‘Cool! We’ll start with my mansion, Scar you’ve got 15 minutes to clear up your chest monster back in the village!’ Grian said grinning.

‘What? But you also have a giant chest monster!’ Scar complained.

‘But I’m not ashamed of it.’ The blond gave his friend a shit-eating grin. 

Scar just returned the look and rolled his eyes, standing up. ‘I’ll see you back in a bit then.’ he said, before leaving the kitchen with Jellie cradled in his arms.

Fundy chuckled lightly at the scene, and then Grian started picking up the dishes.

‘Scar has had a lot of time and practice with his Vex powers, it hasn’t been easy and he has told me about it. Not everyone can manage their own magic like that.’ Grian said in a soft voice. 

Fundy froze and looked to Grian.

Grian smiled at him ‘I’m not gonna ask what upset you. But if you ever want to talk about it, I’m here’

Fundy just stared back, unsure what to do with that information. 

The blond had looked at his disappointment and somehow had given him hope again. 

Was Fundy that easy to read? How had Grian perfectly peered into his mind like that?

‘Uhm… okay’ He answered awkwardly.

Grian just kept his cheery demeanor and walked away from the kitchen counter once everything was put away.

‘Let's go?’ the blond asked.

Fundy stood up and the sudden movement woke up Profesor Beak who jumped from his hat, startled.

‘Oh no! I’m so sorry buddy!’ Fundy apologized.

Professor Beak just shook before chirping and flying back to his little nook. 

‘Did I anger him?’ Fundy asked, clearly feeling guilty about it.

Grian looked at the fox and just placed a hand on his back while guiding him out the door ‘Nah. He probably went to play with his toys. Professor Beak is a pesky bird I tell you. He only has two settings… calm and biting toes’ he complained, fondness of the little bird evident in every word. ‘But anger is not one of them.’

‘Are you sure?’ Fundy asked.

Grian just gave him a sympathetic look while he dragged him out of his hobbit hole.

‘Absolutely. Don’t worry about that!’

Fundy would have stayed worried about that, but Grian friendly and cheery demeanor made his concern melt away. 

‘How do you do that?’ Fundy asked without realizing he was talking out loud.

‘How do I do what?’ Grian asked innocently.

‘I… No… nothing… nothing I was just thinking out loud… ignore me’ The fox stuttered. He didn’t mean to ask out loud. He really should be more careful!

Grian looked at him, before snickering lightly ‘The offer is still there, you know? Whenever you need me.'

Fundy didn’t feel like talking right now, so he just walked hurriedly out of the base and towards the mansion.

‘Let’s just go!’ Fundy said. 

‘Right then. Let’s go’ Grian replied, following him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should mention. The headcanon that Profesor Beak is a service parrot comes from the blog @give-grian-rights  
> It is a small spoiler but I feel I should credit it


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! As predicted I had to take more time with this chapter but here it is! 
> 
> As always thank you for your support and your comments! <3
> 
> Special thanks to Lin (@ivorylin) for beta readding and editing 
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter!
> 
> Cw: cursing

Fundy stood in front of the enormous mansion once again. Going by its size it should really be called a castle at this stage, he thought.

It was so big it encroached in the jungle and then expanded towards the mountains, expanding upwards, downwards and sideways. This close it was easier to appreciate the depth of the cliff the mansion rested on top of in more detail.

Grian stood beside him quietly, letting him take in everything. He was waiting to see if Fundy wanted to ask something.

The fox just stared, walked closer, then took a step back, and glued his eyes on the enormous build again. He approached the railings carefully, looked down, and neared what seemed to be the main entrance of the base. It was down here on ground level instead of high where the main part of the mansion was which confused Fundy even more. He backed off again to just keep watching.

Grian had a broad smile plastered on his face, content to stand there with his arms crossed seeing Fundy take in as much as he could.

It was a good five minutes before Fundy spoke

‘The blocks in the ceiling…is that dark prismarine?’ 

‘Yep!’ Grian responded.

Fundy had never used that block before, but he knew those could only be acquired by dying prismarine blocks or mining them from ocean monuments. The question was… how in the entire universe had Grian managed to get enough for his stupidly big build? There was no way of knowing for sure, but he could estimate the ceiling was made up of at least a thousand dark prismarine blocks.

‘How did you-‘ Fundy was about to ask, eyes opened comically wide.

‘Oh I didn’t. I bought all of those from the shopping district’ Grian laughed.

Then which Hermit was the lunatic that had gathered this? And how? 

‘Okay well, and who did it then?’ Fundy asked

‘Impulse! He has an elder guardian farm and he supplies all of us with all the blocks we could need from ocean monuments: all types of prismarine and sea lanterns for example.’

At the mention of sea lanterns, Fundy remembered the gigantic sphere of lights that rested just under the glass dome of False’s base.

Could a single person really manage to do all of that? 

‘What about the concrete?’ he inquired, only now taking in the giant amount of grey and light grey concrete that made up a majority of the mansion. 

‘There are two shops that sell concrete, but many of us also just craft our own’ Grian said ‘I clearly bought mine’ he added.

Fundy did the mental gymnastics. Concrete required gravel, sand and one piece of dye to craft.

He looked at this- this  _ thing _ in front of him and just had to word the equal fascination and horror that grew in his mind.

‘How do you even produce that much concrete? False’s giant tower and her city looked like it was also made from concrete...’ He huffed.

Grian just smiled and waved a netherite shovel from his inventory around. ‘With this… and a lot of patience’ 

Fundy just looked at the blond. His disbelief must have been visible on his face because Grian added:

‘We can create farms but some tasks just can’t be automated. So you just have to take a day off and grind away.’ He shrugged. 

Fundy blinked, ears perking up and tail fluffing up. ‘No way.’

‘Yes way’ replied Grian smiling.

‘No fucking way! You just dig sand and gravel for hours!?’

‘Days’ Grian clarified.

‘DAYS?!’ 

‘Well… I mean… that is if you are a Hermit who needs things immediately, or if you have to stock a concrete shop. Otherwise you would go to the barge and buy it from there in bulk.'

Well that did make sense, they all had a lot of diamonds apparently, but same as the concrete, someone had to dig all that…and if the Hermits bought from the barge-

Fundy looked at Grian who smiled sweetly in return, making Fundy’s hands clench a bit.

‘Grian. One question: how?’ Fundy asked. The blond surely must be using some of that End magic he had previously shown, otherwise how would he dig enough to satisfy the demand for gravel and sand in a group of people that seemed to use concrete like it was an infinite resource?

‘With a lot of shovels and patience’ Grian answered.

Fundy grabbed the blond’s collar ‘Grian!’, he whined in disbelief.

The blond just laughed.

‘Why?! You have magic!’

Grian’s laugh immediately stopped. It was so abrupt Fundy let go of Grian’s jacket out of fear of having stumbled into something he shouldn’t. 

Grian was rather more surprised than angered at the question but saw the quick, almost fearful reaction Fundy had, even backing off a bit. Grian frowned a bit at that and Fundy simply backed off more. 

Then it clicked. 

‘Don't worry about me, that question just came out of nowhere! It took me by surprise’ the blond assured, smiling encouragingly at Fundy. He knew how terrifying a sudden change of demeanor could be so he could guess why the fox had reacted like that. 

Fundy exhaled a bit. He still felt bad as well as slightly on edge. It was a weird reaction to have but getting an explanation did calm him down.

Grian gave a tentative step forward and when he saw Fundy didn’t flinch back he approached the fox and put an arm around the fox’s shoulders, pulling him a bit downwards due to their height difference. And then he whispered jokingly ‘Between you and me, I’m not actually supposed to use magic’ Grian said with a pretend-serious voice, his usual cheeriness bleeding through in every word. 

Fundy hesitated but curiosity got the better of him and he whispered back ‘Why not?’

Grian smiled at Fundy playing along with him, so he bounced on his feet and let go of Fundy, putting an air of grand importance ‘Well you see Fundy. As Hermits our job is to expand the range of the Alliance! And to do so we colonize planets at the outermost regions of the universe that might be dangerous. And we stay long enough to monitor if it is safe out here. But, you know, if I was allowed to use my powers, we would be done in a day and then what would we do for two years?’ Grian explained.

Fundy thought about it. So that’s why they moved. 

But if Grian was implying they went this grand and extra with their builds out of boredom Fundy was going to rage again.

‘It's… kinda dumb’ Fundy said, deep in thoughts.

‘You think this is  _ dumb _ ?’ 

‘Well yeah…couldn't you just do all this and still use your powers? Doesn't that make more sense?’

Grian looked at him, and then hummed as if in thought, stroking his chin jokingly before replying.

‘It kinda does’ Grian said with a smile, looking intently at Fundy ‘but I don’t really like using my powers that much, and X-eye-zuma doesn't like them that much either’ He paused before adding ‘It might sound stupid but I can assure you. It's fair, or at least I feel like it is’ 

Fundy just nodded, a bit lost. He felt like he was missing something to understand the builder’s words completely. But Grian seemed to just be like that so he let it slide. 

‘Fundy, did I scare you?’ Grian asked seemingly unprompted while he walked towards his mansion, with Fundy following closely.

‘Wha- what?’ Fundy stuttered, shocked.

Perhaps Grian had been too upfront. ‘Just now, did I scare you?’ he tried.

‘I.. um…' Fundy laughed awkwardly ‘I... yeah, a bit. I just thought you got angry. I wouldn’t want to anger any of you guys. I’m a guest afterall, you know?’ the fox said while scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

The blond knew better than that, but if Fundy wasn’t willing to talk he wasn’t going to push it either. 

‘Would you like to see the inside?’ Grian proposed, giving Fundy an out of the uncomfortable moment.

Fundy just nodded and followed him inside.

‘I’m sorry for the mess… I suck at tidying my shulkers and chests up’ Grian said the moment he walked past the great gate of his mansion.

Fundy just looked at the ever rising wooden ceiling and the gigantic pillars ahead. And of course, at the monstrosity that was what Grian and Scar might call a ‘chest monster’: a ridiculous amount of chests and shulker boxes scattered around the hall 

‘Let me guess. You bought the shulker boxes in the shopping district?” Fundy said.

‘Correct!’ Grian replied while walking further, passing by maps on the walls that Fundy stopped to look at. 

Grian stopped as well when he noticed Fundy stayed behind. 

There were three maps, all of them seemed to be of the same area. But every subsequent map had more details than the previous one.

‘It's a register of this jungle!’ Grian explained.

Fundy just kept looking and discovered it was true. Seeing how the mansion had been expanded over time and in between maps he also saw a gigantic hole being dug and an entire desert being covered with a dark material. 

‘We like to have a register of our bases’ Grian explained ‘I just have a register for all Hermits that live close by’

Registers. Fundy remembered helping Tubbo with L’Manbergs library. They have kept a library of history of their nation, filled with books, but surely adding maps like the Hermits did could be a nice addition.

‘You don’t keep written records?’ Fundy asked, unable to tear his eyes off at the maps

‘Written records?’ Grian asked back.

‘Yeah. My family and friends keep a written record of all the events that took place back home’ Fundy explained 

‘Well I’d say we keep a register of events by building things, so we have never bothered with a written record’ the blond replied, after considering it briefly.

It made sense. Their structures didn’t get blown up. They didn’t need a written record, when everything they built stayed in place no matter what. 

‘What happens to everything you build after you leave a world to start another colony?’ Fundy asked, finally looking at Grian.

‘I’m not sure actually’ Grian replied ‘I think The Alliance preserves the worlds for others.’

Fundy still couldn’t get a grasp of that concept. Just building your life and community together with your friends and leaving it behind.

‘Don’t you miss it?’ Fundy asked

‘Eh. Not really. I still have the other Hermits with me and we get the opportunity to make new things. There isn’t much to miss.’ 

Fundy stood there trying to imagine that too. They all stuck together, leaving everything and everyone behind. They probably stuck with the ‘no sides’ philosophy he had heard from Ranboo. It seemed to work, after all they did have wars but it didn’t harm their friendships in any way. 

Grian took a slow step away to see if Fundy would follow him, but the ginger seemed lost in thought so he waited beside him and asked:

‘You guys have a library?’ 

That snapped Fundy back to the present.

‘Yeah. We declared independence from the authority of… our admin… and we have a library detailing everything we have done as an independent nation since’ 

Fundy explained ‘My… father insisted on it being something important and I helped my friends continue the library after he died.'

‘How interesting... I haven’t heard of worlds having independent nations in a while’ Grian replied, seemingly deep in thought ‘I though no one used that concept anymore.’ 

‘Why not?’ Fundy asked. 

Grian looked at him, face in a grimace, before averting his eyes. He didn’t answer.

Well that was strange. 

Grian then quickly walked down the corridor. ‘I haven’t given you a tour yet.’ 

Fundy spared the maps one last look before following Grian. 

They reached a grand hall that had tall pillars and a ceiling that appeared to be letting in sunlight, despite clearly being deep within the mountain the mansion was built on top of. There was also a giant chicken just below the ceiling. 

Grian explained that it had been part of a prank and didn’t elaborate more, instead showing off his very large sorting system and trading hall. 

Fundy knew about sorting systems, but this one was giant. 

‘I didn’t know you could do redstone as well!’ Fundy said.

‘I can’t. I followed Mumbo’s blueprints. I highly doubt this is even the biggest sorting system on Hermitcraft' Grian replied.

The amount of chests and hoppers needed to construct this thing was ridiculous. And yet as it was prone to happen here, it was passed off as ‘nothing’. Fundy just sighed and dismissed those thoughts in favor of inspecting it more closely. He discovered the chests to be all almost empty. 

As it turns out, Grian had built that gigantic system to keep his stuff in order and he didn’t even use it. 

These people were truly unbelievable. 

They talked for a bit more, Grian explaining that the mountain where the mansion was built on was also handmade, with the help of Scar. Fundy had to just keep his rage over the Hermits continuing to be crazy to himself. 

Fortunately, Scar arrived soon, declaring to have sorted through the chest monster at his village and inviting Grian and Fundy to follow. And followed they did, walking through the jungle as Scar insisted it had to be like that for it to work. 

Fundy wasn’t sure what Scar meant by ‘it’ until he saw a giant snail at the other side of a lake, it looked like it had been built in the same way as the glass butterfly he had seen before. 

While they approached, Scar explained that this had been his starter base. Fundy looked up and noticed hanging bridges connecting multiple tree houses constructed in giant trees, they were nowhere close to the Omega Tree of Doom but they still towered above the tallest jungle trees. It was amazing. And it looked beautiful.

‘You are about to get blown away.’ Grian mentioned while they arrived in front of the snail.

Fundy found himself in front of the gate of a village that looked out of a fairy tale book. He gasped and entered with the Hermits behind him.

Everything was built to emulate a fairy tale village, the paths extended all throughout the village and connected all the buildings, in the center Fundy saw a gigantic cristal rest in the center which he approached. 

‘Careful’ Scar remarked and Fundy knew to stop when he felt the fur of his ears being pulled to the crystal. It was actually filled with magic, blue pale magic swirling inside of it. It was fascinating 

‘Is… Is that vex magic?’ Fundy asked, entranced by it.

‘It is! It keeps the entire village illuminated, so mobs don’t spawn’ Scar explained, smile audible in his voice.

Fundy looked up from the crystal and saw a huge ruined tower in the distance. He walked past the crystal to look at it, now registering there was also a farm and an observatory on the edges of the village. 

Looking around from here he had a better view of the giant trees and all the hanging bridges that connected them. 

‘Did you grow the trees with magic?’ Fundy asked still looking at the coolest tree house he had ever seen 

‘Not me, plant life just mutates out of control when I use my powers. I asked Stress to help out’ Scar explained

‘Oh, do you think Stress is in her factory? We should go say hi!’ Grian said 

‘But I want to show him the Big Dig’ Scar replied

‘We can go at the end of the tour. Save it for last, you know?’ 

Scar faked being annoyed by that. 

Fundy meanwhile just kept looking around. It felt like the village was it’s own little world. It was incredible the level of detail that had gone into every single structure. He walked closer to the farm and looked around before getting spooked by something brushing his leg. He looked down only to find Jellie purring at him 

‘Oh hello’ Fundy said looking at the cat that in turn meowed softly and walked back to the center of the village, possibly going back to Scar. Until she stopped to look back at him. 

Was Jellie trying to guide him bad to Scar?

Fundy tilted his head confused but ultimately decided to follow Jellie that continued walking back to her owner when she saw the fox following. 

‘Hello Jellie’ Scar greeted her cat and extended his arms for her to jump up ‘thanks for bringing Fundy back’ the grey cat jumped up and purred at her owner

‘This place is so pretty!’ Fundy remarked

‘I know! Scar is crazy good’ Grian replied patting Scar in the shoulder. 

The taller builder just laughed a bit and replied shyly ‘Thanks. I wanted to do a small scale project while I planned my main project for this world’

Wasn’t an entire village a big project? 

Fundy gave a last look around. 

Well it was smaller than everything he had seen, and yet calling such a beautiful and thought-through place a ‘small project’ made the ginger wonder just what Scar had made for a ‘main project’ for this to be considered small. 

Sure. It was small in scale but the amount of detail was absurd. Fundy had even seen artificial red mushrooms were placed throughout the entire place and surrounding area to compliment the landscape of the village. 

‘Where do you want to go next?’ Grian asked Fundy

‘I saw a weird temple with a heart on it. Is that a base?’ 

‘It is! That’s Mumbo’s base! Let 's go!’ Grian said quickly equipping his elytra

‘Ohhh I haven’t visited it yet’ Scar added opening his inventory searching for his own elytra

Fundy followed suit, opening his inventory and equipping his elytra. Scar took a bit longer. 

Until he said:

‘I think I left it in the chest monster inside of Larry’ 

Grian looked at him before bursting in laughter

‘Is it really that bad?’ Fundy asked

‘Larry has 3 floors… only two of those are accessible' Scar said looking back at the giant snail he had for a base. 

‘Don’t you guys have spare elytras?’ Fundy asked, arguing that surely they would just carry spare elytras

‘I… lost mine’ Scar admitted

‘I think mine are back at the barge’ Grian admitted after he calmed down from his fit of laughter

‘I guess we can just walk there?’ Fundy offered

‘No need’ Scar said while pale blue magic emanated out of him. His skin going pale and both his ears and teeth growing, his green eyes going completely empty aside from a glowing iris of the same blue color remaining. His hands more similar to pale and blue claws now and a pair of semi transparent wings erupting from his back

‘Ah! Demised Scar!’ Grian said jokingly backing away

‘I was rather more monochrome on Demise’ Scar cleared up, his voice sounding twisted as if a second voice talked behind his actual voice. 

A chill ran down Fundy’s spine. The same eerie vibe that Scar had given earlier came back ten fold. 

‘Well with that sorted out, let’s go’ Grian said, taking rockets out of his inventory to fly off.

Fundy just looked at Scar a little bit longer before taking the rockets out as well. 

Soon all three of them were in the air flying back to the giant temple Fundy had seen before. In the air Fundy realized that alongside the giant glass butterflies over the jungle, there was also a giant bee and dragonfly hovering right at the outer limits of Scar’s village. He hadn’t noticed them before but with all the details to see at ground level he probably had missed more things. 

‘G, where are you going?’ Scar asked through his earpiece.

‘I just have to feed the base. Give me a second!’

‘Feed?’ Fundy asked.

‘Come with me’ Grian called, landing on one of the high platforms of the base where a series of redstone lamps emitted their warm light from the structure. 

Fundy and Scar landed right after Grian and saw him take a golden apple out of his inventory which he deposited in a chest. Moments later, one of the columns of redstone lamps lit up completely. The other column remained with two lights off.

‘He needs to keep a better track of this thing’ Grian muttered to himself.

Scar looked at the landscaping job on the hill around the structure that was formed to look ruined, amazed, while Fundy approached Grian. 

‘Did you say you had to  _ feed _ the base?’ Fundy asked.

‘I did. Mumbo built his base so it is alive’ Grian explained.

Fundy could have expected many things but an animated structure was not one of those. But then he remembered the beating heart at the top of the base ‘So - that heart?’

‘Is the base's heart. If the base goes too much time without getting fed the beating becomes more and more erratic’ Grian explained ‘And if too much time passes, it loses one of it’s lives’ he said pointing to the column with unlit redstone lamps. 

According to it the temple had lost two lives and only had three left

‘How did he even accomplish that?’ Fundy asked incredulously.

‘Redstone. Mumbo is a spoon but he is very good at that’ Grian explained

‘He has gotten better at terraforming as well!’ Scar replied, still looking around.

‘Let’s see if we can find the mustached man himself then, shall we?’ Grian said, jumping off the platform and gently gliding down.

While Fundy followed suit, Scar stayed behind, still admiring the details which made the temple look older than it really was. 

Grian gently landed in front of one of the four openings to the main body of the base, Fundy landed less elegantly, but he didn’t fall flat on his face. He took that as a win in his book.

He found that the structure had an inside with a wooden floor that had bamboo and grass growing all over it. Four tall nether portals stood in the center of the base, each facing one entrance. 

Even down here, the beating of the heart was still audible. Fundy found that feature as creepy and fascinating as he had when he saw it for the first time. 

‘Mumbo!’ Grian called out for his fellow Hermit. 

In the meantime, Fundy looked back to the modern looking structures outside before refocusing on the interior. Looking up, he saw that the ceiling and central piece were actually made of blackstone and basalt. 

He blinked. And looked again. 

Would it be productive to feel outrage over a Hermit using nether blocks decoratively and as a ceiling? Probably not. That didn’t stop Fundy from looking at the ceiling in disbelief though. 

If he could at least shake one Hermit and repeatedly ask why and get an actual answer aside from ‘aesthetic reasons’ or ‘We are bored’, he would be satisfied, but until then he would just proceed being outraged. 

‘Either Mumbo is asleep, afk or just plain not here’ Grian thought outloud 

Fundy’s ears twitched at that and he made his way across the bamboo to reach Grian who was still looking around. 

‘You guys actually go afk?’

‘More the redstoners to test their farms but yeah, we do. Why?’ The builder asked absentmindedly, still trying to figure out where his friend was.

‘Isn’t it dangerous?’ Fundy could only think that anyone who went afk would most likely get killed and robbed - or mugged, as Tommy would say.

‘It is. You could get pranked’ Grian said. ‘Mostly by me’ he added with a mischievous tone. 

‘You don’t reach the point of deadly pranks?’ Fundy asked, remembering how he pushed Jack off the Prime Path and how he tried to drown him.

‘Not really. We often stick with just very annoying pranks’ Grian answered looking through the portal and downwards. 

‘Oh, his storage is down there’ he said before backing away from the portal. 

‘There is more base down there so we gotta go down’ Grian informed Fundy before jumping and gliding down.

The fox followed a little more slowly, jumping and gliding down, seeing that the water stream he had seen coming out the golden heart did in fact go all throughout the base, and it seemed to be connected to redstone components that would emit the beating sound and probably measured if the base was ‘fed’ or not. 

Huh. Really weird but nevertheless impressive. Once he had landed, he found himself in a hexagonal room with chests all over the walls. It looked like Grian’s storage system but twice as big. 

Fundy walked around to take a look at everything. What the room lacked in detail it sure made up redstone. Kind of like Iskall’s tree, it was very large and filled with redstone machines but lacked the level of decoration Grian’s and Scar’s bases had. 

‘Oh, come on now’ Grian complained out loud, looking at something. 

‘What happened?’ Fundy asked, approaching him.

‘Mumbo’s not here’ Grian replied taking his communicator out ‘Even if he should be’

Fundy looked over Grian’s shoulder to find a message that read:

_ I went afk on my industrial district today at 7:00pm, I’ll be back tomorrow at 10:00am _

Fundy looked at his communicator and realized it was already a quarter past ten. Before he could wonder for longer what was going on, a notification appeared on his communicator.

He opened it to realize it was from the general chat room of all the Hermits. 

He scrolled up seeing that just the day before all of them had talked throughout the day and pretty much everyone was aware he was here. He then scrolled down to the newest texts that had started entering the world-wide chat. 

<Grian> has someone seen Mumbo? He was supposed to finish an afk session 15 minutes ago

<Joehills> negative

<ImpulseSV> no

<Ethoslab> nope 

<TangoTek> no x2

<Zedaph> no x3

<Stressmonster> I haven’t seen him today

<Rendog> no dude

<Xisumavoid> Grian his state is still listed as afk and he is still in his industrial district 

<Keralis> hi Shashawmy

<Falsesymmetry> hey X 

<Xisumavoid> heIIo. Grian could you go and fetch him?

<Grian> can’t I’m showing Fundy around 

<Falsesymmetry> oh hey how is Fundy doing?

<ItsFundy> hi False I’m good 

Grian looked up from his communicator to look at Fundy ‘I didn’t know you were in the general chat!’ he said surprised

‘I didn't know either’ Fundy admitted ‘I just realized’

‘Oh’ Grian said and looked back at the chat and smiled ‘It seems the others are excited’ 

Fundy looked back at the chat 

<Zedaph> it’s the new guy!

<TangoTek> hello new guy!

<Stressmonster> Ello! Welcome to Hermitcraft <3

<Rendog> hi! :D

<ImpulseSV> hi!

<Cubfan> o/

<Joehills> Hello Fundy, delighted to see you in chat with us 

<Ethoslab> I was wondering if X was going to give you access to chat lol

<Keralis> we have guests? Shashawamy, why didn’t you tell me?

<Xisumavoid> I gave a general announcement by chat early yesterday. I know it is exciting having Fundy here but please. Can someone go get Mumbo from his industrial district? 

<ImpulseSV> sorry I’m busy D: 

<Zedaph> I’m testing with Tango

<Falsesymmetry> I’m busy as well

<Joehills> I’m far from the mainland

<TangoTek> can confirm Zed is going to kill me 

<Goodtimeswithscar> I don’t know where his industrial district is :c

<Cubfan> I’ll go Xisuma

<Xisumavoid> thank you Cub 

<Rendog> ty! 

<Stressmonster> thank you Cub!

<Falsesymmetry> thanks! 

Fundy read a bit more, enjoying to see the Hermits interact with each other, and answering some of their questions

<Grian> Fundy is my guest today so he stays with me 

<Falsesymmetry> unfair 

<Zedaph> yeah :c

Grian only laughed and saved his communicator back on his jacket. Looking at Fundy, he said: ‘We better go to Stress’ place before the chat becomes a chain of sad faces.’

‘Do you always chat like this?’ Fundy asked following Grian to the center of the floor to fly out 

‘Pretty much’ Grian replied, taking off to go back up on the main floor where Scar was waiting for them, back as his human appearance. 

Fundy followed the blond outside and when he landed immediately asked ‘What is an industrial district and why was Xisuma so worried of getting your friend out?‘

Grian quickly let Scar know they were heading to Stress’ base before turning his attention back to Fundy. 

‘An industrial district is exactly what it sounds like. A place you fill with industrial redstone farms. And X is worried because the lag can become dangerous with that much redstone working at the same time for extended periods of time. 

Fundy tilted his head confused.

‘You know how redstone works?’ Grian asked

‘Eh.. not really? I have built things before obviously, but I’m not really sure’ Fundy replied. 

‘Well think of redstone as its own form of magic, it follows rules and principles.’ Grian explained ‘I’m no expert but what Iskall and Mumbo have taught me is that too much redstone running in an unstable fashion for long periods of time can create a time bubble.’ 

Fundy blinked. He had never heard of that.

‘That’s what we call lag. The area surrounding the industrial district is probably lagging like… fifteen minutes or halve an hour of our regular time. That’s why Mumbo left a sign stating when he left and when he was supposed to return. If he stays too long, the anomalies could expand further.’

Fundy was completely lost. He could tell that messing with the space-time-continuum didn’t sound like a good idea but everything else sounded like absolute jargon.

‘Uhm…’ Fundy said.

‘Iskall can probably explain it better’ Grian assured. 

‘Yeah, because I didn’t understand anything either,’ Scar said. 

‘Do you even do redstone?’ Grian asked jokingly.

‘Sometimes… and it doesn't take me three hours to do systems that's for sure. I just do them the first time perfectly and I don’t have to ask Cub for help’ Scar shot back.

Grian chuckled slightly before focusing again. 

‘We need redstone classes. In the meantime, let’s go to Stress’ base, unless Fundy wants to do something else?’ Grian asked looking at the fox.

‘No! It’s okay - I’m enjoying the tour even if … even if everything is kind of .. crazy’ Fundy responded, still thinking why someone would build redstone machines that could mess with the space-time continuum. 

As things went here, Fundy figured it was also due to a ridiculous reason (like ‘It’s fun’) but he wasn’t going to ask right now. 

‘Cool! Let’s go then’ Grian said, already walking towards one of the entrances to leave, Scar transforming again to follow suit. 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Hello Hello! (Howdy :3)
> 
> Super duper sorry for the long wait! I had to move appartments and that was hell and also classess were being more hellish than usual and I think I went through a writer's block. 
> 
> But is all behind now and you get an extra long chapter today! Hope you enjoy it :3
> 
> As always, especial thanks to Lin (@ivorylin) for beta readding and editing 
> 
> Cw: Cursing 
> 
> TW: slight discussion of trauma, mention of death

Fundy followed both Hermits towards a lake in the center of the jungle, finally arriving at the place that had the glass butterflies hovering overhead. By being this close he realised there was also a floating castle and a giant nether portal in the sky. In the far distance, where the jungle ended, he could also faintly see an ominous tower, that was probably another base. It looked even more evil than False’s giant villain base. 

They landed on one side of the lake in front of what looked like the cutest factory Fundy had ever seen. He looked around the area since it seemed the entire lake was the base instead of just one big building. He saw a giant cauldron with a glass rainbow coming out of it and hanging over half of the lake, a giant pink flower a little further away that seemed to be built out of pink concrete, a glass dome made out of various colors, and a giant skull made with white concrete that was adorned with a flower crown. 

Huh. This was definitely something on the more  _ normal  _ side of things, but it was also very cute and overall  _ pink _ . Fundy liked it. Especially the purple glass butterflies hovering above made for a really nice effect. 

“How do you keep these things floating?” Fundy asked.

“With some Vex magic or admin controls" Scar, back as his human appearance, replied. 

“Stress helped me with my trees so I helped her with her butterflies and I did the bumblebee and dragonfly for my village because I liked the idea so much.”

‘It is very pretty’ Fundy agreed. If Scar’s village looked like out of a fairy tale book then this base definitely looked like someone would describe when asked to describe a fairy kingdom.

“Guys come on!” Grian called inviting them to approach the main door of the factory. Scar and Fundy arrived at the same time Grian called out “Stress! Stress, are you here? Can we give Fundy a tour of your base?”

“A moment!” came a sing sang voice from inside the building.

Grian walked in, followed by Scar and Fundy, until they stopped. 

Fundy found himself in a large room with a warped fungi growing in the middle atop a little aisle of warped nylium. The cyan and purple colors complementing the large white and pink room. Fundy also picked the strong smell of potions. Health potions usually had a cherry-like smell while swiftness potion smelled more minty, but the air had a stronger smell of caramel, a characteristic of leaping potions. Fundy had always found it disappointing that potions didn’t really have any distinguishable taste despite their strong smells. 

“Is this a potion factory?” he asked, looking around to try and see if he could catch a glimpse of some other corridor.

“It is! Stress has a potion shop in the Shopping district and she is usually our healer, so she keeps a lot of potions with her” Grian explained, saving his elyta to his inventory.

“How did you know it was a potion brewery?” Scar asked curiously.

“Well the air is filled with potion smells” Fundy replied.

Both Hermits looked at each other before turning to Fundy.

“You can smell potions?” Grian asked.

“You can't?” Fundy asked back.

“Well not unless you open the bottle” Scar replied.

“But how could you not? The smell is strong. Especially right now” Fundy answered, confusedly.

“Not even Ren can smell potions that easily” Grian mumbled.

Scar took a deep inhale and hummed in thought.

“So, you can’t smell it?” Fundy asked.

“It is there… but is almost imperceptible, wouldn’t know I was smelling potions unless you told me to look out for that smell” Scar replied.

“How do you do that?” Grian asked.

“I…I just do” the fox replied. “There’s no real science to it.”

“Can you identify potions by smell too?” Scar asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Oh! Can you smell invisibility potions?” Grian asked excitedly.

“Those have a duller smell but yeah. They smell like berries” Fundy explained. 

“Oh you would ruin so many pranks” Grian said, grinning mischievously.

“Ha. Yeah probably… if people didn’t use them to spy on me and my friends or attack us I would definitely ruin some pranks” Fundy said.

Scar’s expression grew concerned at that, he seemed he was going to ask something but Grian was faster. 

“So if I drank potions and I were to attack you… you would know what you were going against just by the smell?” Grian inquired.

“Well no. If you splashed yourself with potions then I could tell though” Fundy replied.

Grian just hummed at that answer and simply replied “That sounds useful.”

Scar gave a step forward, face still full on concern “Wait, but-”

“Ello!” Came an excited voice from the water elevators, all three of them turned around to see Stress approaching them “Sorry I took some time!” 

“Hi Stress!” Grian greeted her cheerily.

“Hello!” Scar greeted her at the same time he got hugged alongside Grian. 

“So you geezers finally came and decided to share Fundy!” she said, laughing.

“It wasn’t our fault! Iskall hoarded him yesterday and today there were pancakes” Grian quipped back.

“We couldn’t have come earlier even if we wanted” Scar added. 

“Mhm!” Stress said in a tone that sounded like a ‘yeah sure’ before smiling again and letting them go of her hug. She then turned to look at Fundy “Have they at least been good hosts luv?” 

Fundy was caught off guard by the question and then he smiled mischievously, Stress seemed cool “No, they were terribly, i’m telling you” 

Grian gasped, mock offended while Scar simply said “Fundy!” in a jokey panic voice

Stress put her hands on her hips and turned around to look at her fellow Hermits. 

“Stress he is lying!” Grian defended himself. 

“We have been good!” Scar said.

Stress looked at them.

“We are such amazing hosts we brought him here to show him your base!” Grian said. “Isn’t that right Scar?”

“It is!” Scar replied

“Well, then it would be rude if I didn’t give Fundy a tour!” Stress replied looking back at Fundy excitedly.

“It would!” Grian said.

“Well then let’s go!” Stress said walking towards Fundy and pulling him by his jacket 

“Sure!” Grian said, going to follow Stress but Scar pulled at his jacket “What?” the blond ask

Fundy saw how they stayed behind and exchanged glances, then both looked at him, and continued mumbling things between them. 

“Uh. Guys?” Fundy asked looking back at the Hermits. 

“Stress do you have any cake?” Scar asked.

“It's too early for cake Scar!” Stress replied, still walking towards the exit with Fundy right behind her.

“Guys?” Fundy asked again.

“We’ll see you in a bit! We are going to make some tea. Can we Stress?” Grian asked.

“Go right ahead!” Stress said, that had dragged Fundy out of the little factory by this point 

Fundy was surprised by how strong she was.

Scar and Grian stood in the same place until Stress and Fundy were out of view.

“What happened?” Grian asked “Why are we staying behind?”

Scar hesitated, he opened his mouth to say something but instead he made his way towards Stress’ tea room. 

“Scar?” Grian asked, following the taller builder. 

Scar didn’t stop until he made it to the big beautifully adorned room

“Hey what's wrong?” Grian insisted, now putting a hand on top of Scar’s shoulder.

“I might be starting to get worried about Fundy” Scar replied.

“Well, I figured as much.”

Scar didn’t say anything else. 

“Are you Iskall-worried or me-worried about him?” 

“I don’t know I’m just worried!” 

“Scar”

“It’s just...first his pets. And that thing he said just now of someone attacking him?” Scar said, almost rambling “I’m sure people have to train somehow to be able to detect potions like that, what kind of world would require him to know that?”

“Scar!” Grian said, getting the attention of his friend

“Something is clearly going on in his world” Grian affirmed “But getting worried won’t help. Not him, and not anyone else”

“But Gri” Scar protested.

“He won’t talk unless he wants too. And even if he did what could we do?” Grian asked “That’s why I’m not stopping to ask whenever he says something concerning. The best thing we can do is ensure he gets some nice vacations.”

“But something is clearly wrong! We should at least ask.”

“It’s probably a war, or multiple.” 

Scar looked at him “Did you-”

“No. Of course not! I’m just guessing by what he told me” Grian replied before walking past Scar “But there might be other things. Prof. Beak only becomes that clingy and chirps that constantly when I’m extremely anxious and you saw he stuck immediately to Fundy”

“I noticed it, I thought it was because I scared him” Scar said. 

“Before we gathered again to go to your village, something happened. We were joking around and then I stopped laughing. And Fundy backed off as if he was waiting for me to do something to him.” Grian said gravely “Iskall had told me they brought Fundy to get him out of a stressful situation. But it seems more things are going on.”

“We should talk about this with him” Scar insisted.

Grian turned back to look at him “I really don’t think he will open up just like that.”

“You opened up.” 

“I had time to come to terms with everything” Grian said “An incredibly long time” the blond reminded him. He paused for a bit gathering his thoughts before continuing “And I started with just telling all of you how to help. Not what happened. We shouldn’t pry open what’s going on.”

Scar sighed. He knew people took time to open up, especially if they came from a difficult world, and surely Fundy wouldn’t simply let them, a bunch of strangers, in on everything in less than two week. But he was so young, he couldn’t help but get concerned. Just the thought of losing pets so frequently that he gave them up, knowing they would get killed otherwise was heartbreaking. 

“I think this is a situation more like what Iskall went through, or even False” Grian said.

Scar hadn’t been there when False arrived at Hermitcraft but he did know Iskall. Even before Hermitcraft, even before Kingdomcraft. And it took almost a year for them to reveal anything.

“But, he is so young” Scar insisted.

“It is like that. But forcing him to talk won’t do him any good” Grian said.

Scar’s lips only drew a line. He wouldn’t say he was upset. Just sad and feeling really powerless despite being able to do almost anything he wanted at any time. It was frustrating. It was unfair. 

“Hey. Scar” Grian said kindly, opening a box in the beautifully painted counter to reveal the cake inside. 

“Stress said it was too early for cake” Scar replied quietly, obviously restraining himself from grabbing it.

“Just a bite!” Grian said, keeping in laughter. 

Scar stared at the cake.

“Come on” Grian insisted “If Fundy does open up or if he tells us we can help somehow I’ll let you know if you aren’t there to hear it.” 

Grian didn’t look worried. He rarely looked worried. He only gave him an understanding and comforting look.

“If she asks, I ate it” the blonde said grinning mischievously.

Scar gave him a half smile, knowing that Stress would never buy that, after all she had never done so before. But Grian was right. They couldn’t do much right now aside from making sure Fundy had fun. 

“Come on! It’s a strawberry cake!” Grian said.   
  


“Fine” Scar said.

Meanwhile Stress had walked Fundy out of her potion factory and they were standing in front of the lake again. Fundy had asked what each building was and Stress had listed all of its uses.

The floating castle didn’t really have any use as it had been the product of a past mayoral campaign and Stress had built it in the wrong place and simply decided to keep it as decoration. 

Fundy would argue that a floating castle, no matter how small, couldn’t be a simple ‘decoration’ but he knew better by now. So he simply asked Stress why she had done a giant floating nether portal

“Because it looks pretty!” Stress replied enthusiastically.

Why did he even bother asking?

“And the rainbow coming out the cauldron is just for decoration too?” The ginger asked, expecting the same answer.

“The rainbow is for decoration, but under the cauldron I have my super smelter” Stress replied.

Fundy’s ears perked up. He had heard about super smelters and how useful they could be, but he couldn’t imagine a reason someone would need to smelt that much. But now, looking at the glass butterflies, the colorful glass dome that hosted Stress’ trading hall underneath and the glass rainbow, it made sense. 

“Can I see it?” he asked.

“Of course!” Stress replied walking over there “It isn’t that impressive in terms of redstone but I’d say it is still pretty cool” Stress replied leading the way.

“I assume you are a builder as well” Fundy said.

“Yup! I also terraform, just not as much as Scar.”

“He told me you helped him with those big trees at his village.”

“Yep! That was lil’ ol me.” 

“Using magic?” Fundy asked.

“Yup!” 

“What type of magic?” 

“Elemental magic!” Stress answered with glee “Specifically nature, so the trees would grow organically.”

“Oh” Fundy replied. “How?” 

“I simply do! Last world I used my powers to build an ice castle” Stress said, opening a door in the backside of the giant cauldron and beckoning him in.

That sounded amazing. 

“So you can control water and fire and so on?” Fundy asked following inside and seeing a ladder going down. 

“I don’t have a lot of practice in those and dealing with ashes is too bothersome. For now I’ll stick with earth, plants and ice” Stress replied “The smelter is right there” She said pointing at the ladder

“Thanks” Fundy climbed down the stairs and peeked down.

In front of him a large room filled with rows upon rows of furnaces and rails everywhere, probably to distribute all items, stood. It was currently switched off but it still looked absurdly huge. He was probably looking at at least 30 furnaces on each row. 

He didn’t know someone could need that many furnaces, it was impressive. 

“Did you build it?” Fundy asked, still looking at the room-wide smelter.

“Yup! But I had to ask Iskall for some help” Stress replied from the upper floor.

Fundy walked towards the smelter just to check it out more closely and see the hopper lines that ran underneath it to collect all the items and transport them back. Judging by the amount of hoppers, this thing probably smelted hundreds of items at a time. 

But the mention of Iskall and seeing these redstone circuits made him think back to the cyborg’s gigantic redstone counter. Maybe while he was here, he could get some redstone lessons out of them - if they were free that was. With all the things the Hermits did, they looked like they had a busy schedule and the only person he knew who came close to them was Sam. And the creeper hybrid could go two days unseen while he worked. 

Now that he thought about he had been with a Hermit at all times since he arrived. And considering the copious amount of work they had to do to build these things, perhaps he was intruding. 

Well not really. The Hermits themselves had invited him. And they really looked happy to see him. At least that's what it had seemed, judging by chat. 

But what if they were just being polite because Iskall invited him and Xisuma said yes? Why would more than ten people agree to have him around? 

Fundy bit his lip. He was truly happy for their company and the opportunity to look around their world. It was amazing. But maybe he was imposing himself to them? 

Maybe that's why Grian took him from Iskall’s tree because they were tired of him. And now Scar and Grian had gotten tired of him and handed him over to Stress.

And she would probably hand him over to the next-

“Fundy?” Stress voice echoed through the smelter room.

“Sorry! I’m just looking around!” he called back, making his way back to the ladder. Of course he was wasting her time “I’ll go up right now”

“Oh no! No! Don’t feel rushed! Just making sure you were still there and no zombie had sneaked up on you” Stress said giggling slightly. 

Fundy stopped in his tracks. Debating if he should go back. He could probably ask later about the smelter. And Stress probably really wanted him out of there so she could conclude her tour as soon as possible. 

“Hey Stress?” Fundy said climbing up.

“Tell me” she replied cheerily while she looked down. She offered him a hand to help him up the ladder.

Fundy took it and was surprised at the ease with which Stress helped him up his feet again, her smile never leaving her face.

“Uhm” Fundy hesitated. Maybe he was being dumb. The Hermits seemed genuinely nice and he was probably overthinking stuff now.

“What is it?” Stress asked, her friendly tone remained.

“Am I… taking time from any of you?” he asked shyly. 

Stress made a surprised face before replying “Of course not luv! We are more than happy to stay with you and show you around! At least I know lil’ ol me is!” 

Stress offered him a warm smile.

“Are...are you sure?” Fundy asked. 

He was used to people being in good terms with him and suddenly leaving him behind. The Hermits had been incredibly kind up until this point so he really had no indication of them suddenly deciding to leave him. But then again, he didn’t have any indication any of the previous times did he?

Maybe he's just blindsighted at everything going on to notice them being annoyed at him.

That also tended to happen. He’d get excited and ignore all warning signs. 

It was better to know right away. Then he could see where to go and not bother- 

“Fundy?” Stress asked softly.

He focused back into reality to realize he was being handed a pink handkerchief to him “Are you alright luv?” she asked, face full of concern.

He immediately touched his face and realized he was crying slightly. He laughed a bit and took the handkerchief to dry his tears. Why had he been so damn emotional this past couple of days? 

“I’m okay. I just… get worried I’m bothering you” Fundy admitted.

“Of course not dear” Stress said, approaching him “Did I do something to give you that impression?”

“No! No! No. O-of course not. I’m just- I’m just thinking too much and being dumb” Fundy said nervously. The Hermits didn’t need to deal with his bullshit. 

“I’m sure you aren’t” Stress said.

Fundy wanted to cry even more. Instead he said, in the smallest voice he had ever heard himself use “Can I hug you?” 

Stress face softened and she approached him “Of course, luv, always.”

As short as Stress was, her hugs were comforting, and possibly crushing if she decided to tackle him in a bear hug. 

The strength the Hermits displayed in the hugs they had given him was oddly terrifying, yet comforting. 

“Stress don’t break my back” Fundy joked trying to shake the worry out of himself. 

Stress giggled and that made Fundy smile a little bit. 

“I only use lethal hugs in extreme circumstances” Stress said in a jokey evil voice.

“Sounds scary” Fundy replied.

“It is! You can ask my victims! Doc ran off terrified that one time in the civil war.”

Fundy snorted. The mental image of this sweet little lady hugging the tall, intimidating creeper cyborg to death was amusing. He had to back off and laugh. 

Stress let him, offering him a smile and suddenly got excited. 

“Oh! I know where she should go next!” she said, making an inviting gesture to guide Fundy out of the cauldron.

“Where are we going?” Fundy asked, following her.

“We are going to visit Ms. Deeds!”

“Who?” the fox asked. He didn’t get an answer. He was just pulled away at the sleeve by the overly bubbly Hermit. 

He followed Stress who pulled him towards the colored glass dome and they went around to enter a section he hadn’t seen before. Once he entered he found himself in an enclosure with a single brown panda bear in it. And said panda was rolling around. 

Fundy ran towards the fence and almost squealed at the sigh. 

“Ello Ms. Deeds!” Stress greeted the panda cheerfully while she approached the fence.

At the sound of her caretaker. Ms. Deeds stopped rolling around and looked up to look at her visitors. 

Fundy leaned a bit on the fence. It was the first time he had seen a panda. And it was a brown panda!

“How did you find Ms.Deeds?” Fundy asked

“I didn’t! Iskall did. They found her and left her with me” 

So Iskall had done it. 

Ms.Deeds went and reached for a stem of bamboo to munch on. 

“She is so cute!” 

“Right?!” Stress replied with the same enthusiasm as Fundy

Fundy gasped

“Yes?” Stress asked and Fundy replied whispering “Can I pet her?”

“It's better if you don’t luv. Ms. Deeds is one mean lady” Stres said “I had to replace this thing after last time she decided to be a mean-y bear as Scar would say” She said pointing at her pink cardigan. 

“Oh” Fundy replied, trying not to sound disappointed. 

Stress saw him drop his ears and she said “I can offer you cookies and tea in absence of panda pets”

That sounded nice

“Okay” Fundy said. 

In a couple of minutes they were back on Stress main building and she took the fox to what looked like a fluffy and comfy cyan, pink and purple tea room. Where they found Grian and Scar talking with another Hermit Fundy hadn’t seen before

“Hey Stress! Look who we found!” Grian said putting his arms over the shoulders of the tall black haired man with a mustache

“Hi Stress” Mumbo replied bashful

“Ello Mumbo!” Stress greeted him approaching the counter to look for cookies. “Did Cub leave you here?”

“Well no. He left me in my base and Grian brought me over”

“So you could meet Fundy!” Grian said cheerfully gesturing towards Fundy

“Hello” Mumbo replied with a polite smile

“Hi” Fundy replied. Assuming this was the owner of the temple base and also the guy who was afk. 

“Come sit with us” Scar invited him 

Fundy looked back at Stress but she was busy looking between the cabinets so he went and sat down besides Grian. 

“I gave Fundy a tour of your base” Grian said

“You did?” Mumbo asked

“Why did you give it lives?” Fundy asked

“It looked like a cool idea” Mumbo admitted

Great. So Fundy could add to the list of reasons Hermits did crazy things 'it was cool’ as another reason.

Both Grian and Scar chuckled and Mumbo looked confused “What?”

“I think Fundy is about done with all of us” Grian answered

“You don’t say” Fundy replied clenching his fist enraged at how utterly ridiculous they could get

“Wot? But I did nothing!” Mumbo replied chuckling nervously

“Oop” Grian manage to say looking away and trying not to laugh

Fundy threw his hands up in a clear sign of annoyance. His tail fluffing up “Building a giant temple with stuff around it and giving it a beating heart and systems to simulate it’s alive is not nothing!” Fundy complained 

Grian and Scar laughing out loud with Mumbo just looking dumbfounded but smiling unapologetically just stirred Fundy more

“Don’t be rude to Fundy! He is our guest!” Stress said from the other side of the room, where she had set a tray of cookies and was looking for napkins

All three Hermits at the table settled down after that. 

“All of you are crazy” Fundy complained crossing his arms “Only reasonable Hermit is Stress-”

Before Fundy could declare one of the truths of the universe Stress gasped loudly looking at a box and she immediately said “Scar!” in an angry mom tone. 

The tall builder froze in his seat

“Scar Goodtimes! I told you it was too early for cake!” Stress said looking in the direction of the table holding a box with half a cake

“I actually got hungry and ate a slice” Grian said trying to keep himself from laughing again

“Oh no Grian” Stress said, approaching them menacingly “I know you are lying! Anytime I bake cakes the Convex sneaks in and eats them!”

Scar stood up immediately “Oh whoa! Look at the time! I should go feed Jellie!”

“Scar!” Stress said approaching him

The tall builder simply transformed “Okay bye guys!” He said before phasing through a wall before Stress could grab at his jacket. 

Both Mumbo and Grian bursted out laughing and Fundy just looked at the chaos.

Stress huffed and went back to the cabinet to save the cake “Everysingle time”

“Maybe you need a KTCOOMC” Mumbo said

Grian gasped for air in between the laughs before looking at his friend “A what?” he asked

“A ‘Keep the convex out of my cake’” Mumbo said “I just thought about it. It would be a good continuation of the KGOOMR” The mustached man said with glee

Grian simply huffed in return while Stress giggled at that and brought the tray of cookies back to the table “Maybe you are right Mumbo” 

Fundy felt like this was an inside joke he had no hopes of understanding so he simply asked 

“What’s the Convex?”

Stress sat besides him while Grian grabbed a ton of cookies

“That’s just Scar and Cub. They are vexes and they have built evil corporations in the past” Stress explained exaggerating the ‘evil’ part as a joke

“We don’t know if it is just them or all vexes but they will steal any cake they can reach” Grian said 

“And that’s why the KTCOOMC is a great idea!” Mumbo added 

“Can’t believe you built a business in spite of me” Grian murmured before biting a cookie

Fundy just looked at the two friends before looking at Stress 

“Oh!” Mumbo said realizing the poor fox was probably confused “I started a business enterprise when I built specialized vaults to ‘Keep Grian out of my resources’ since he stole so many items from me last season. Turns out other Hermits liked the idea and had me install KGOOMRs in their bases” 

“I’m not doing that anymore!” Grian complained before directing his attention to Fundy “Can you believe this people?”

Fundy snorted. And then he laughed. 

All three Hermits looked at him

He settled down after some seconds and just said “I’m sorry but making a business out of doing vaults to prevent robberies is an amazing idea” he said

Mumbo smiled triumphantly 

“Void. How didn’t I think about that?” Fundy said “Well I don’t know how to do redstone well enough. But I could win so much money doing that”

He pictured people asking him for a vault and Tommy getting angry over said vaults making it more difficult for him to steal 

“Really?” Mumbo asked surprised

“The amount of thievery back home is INSANE. It’s a miracle I still have armor of my own” Fundy said, conveniently forgetting to mention he himself had stolen from his friends and how many times he had scammed people to get their items

“Oh” Mumbo replied “Well if it is that widespread, then I think the vaults won’t help” 

“Why not?” Fundy asked, seeing his new opportunity for a scheme go down the drain

“It works here because we all have agreements. What is meant to be locked stays locked. In another place someone might just mine through the vault” Grian explained.

Even to rob each other, the Hermits were too polite. 

“Even if it doesn't work, I could still try it” Fundy said, taking a cookie and munching on it.

“I might have some reinforced designs that could work” Mumbo said pensively.

“That would be cool” Fundy said, finishing the cookie. They reminded him so much of the cookies and treats Nikki would bake. He grabbed two more cookies “I mean, I probably won’t know how to do them, but it would be cool to see them nonetheless.” 

“I could definitely simplify a design if-” Mumbo was interrupted by his communicator buzzing. 

In fact all Hermit’s communicators buzzed at the same time. 

They all looked at eachother but it buzzed in rapid succession so they all checked it out. 

Stress was the first to giggle. 

“Fundy. Check the main chat” Grian said looking at his screen with a smile.

“Oh my goodness” Mumbo said looking at his communicator as well

Fundy took out his communicator just to see a lot of notifications for the main chat fly by. He opened the main chat room and was just greeted with:

<Iskall> WHERE IS FUNDY?

<Iskall> Dudes Fundy is not in my tree. He is with one of you right?

<Iskall> please say yes

<JoeHills> howdy Iskall good morning

<Rendog> hi dude

<Iskall> hi. where is Fundy?

<Iskall> give me coordinates

<Xisumavoid> hello Iskall. Grian said Fundy was with him 

<Iskall> okay. where?

<Cubfan> you sound like a worried parent 

<Iskall> I am a worried cat momma! Last time Fundy was with Grian he got hurt!

<Falsesymmetry> Iskall has a point

<Iskall> someone that agrees! Where is Fundy?

<Stressmonster> Ello Iskall! He is here in my base eating cookies

“Someone seems worried” Stress said smiling with Grian laughing lightly

“Last time I saw them this worried was back on colony four” Mumbo said 

“Wait Iskall has acted like this before?” Grian asked surprised

“Anytime they get terribly worried” Stress said

Fundy grabbed another cookie and just read the messages over and over. Why would Iskall worry so much about him? 

Not five minutes had passed when Iskall made their way into Stress’ tea room, and found Fundy socializing with the other Hermits.

“Ey sleepyhead!” Grian greeted him 

“You!” Iskall accused

“I just invited Fundy for pancakes and a tour through the jungle while you slept” Grian said

Iskall just frowned before walking towards the table

“Hey man” they greeted Mumbo

“Hi! You finally got some rest” Mumbo replied

“We were starting to get worried” Stress said handing Iskall a cup of tea

“Sorry” Iskall said taking the cup “Thank you”

Fundy looked at the cyborg, seeing them now made him aware of how tired they had looked yesterday “sorry for worrying you” he said 

Iskall immediately looked at him “No dude! It’s alright! I just woke up and saw your door thrown open and got worried. But you can go wherever you want. Don’t mind me” 

The fox was puzzled as to why Iskall was acting like this. The cyborg saw his confusion and simply laid a hand on his head.

“It’s probably the sleep deprivation” 

Fundy didn’t question the gesture and simply took another cookie

“Yeah it’s probably the sleep deprivation” Grian repeated with a mischievous smile.

Mumbo just looked at Iskall, then at Grian and Stress confusedly.

Stress simply took a cookie from the tray. 

The group continued talking over cookies and tea. 

Scar eventually came back after actually going to feed Jellie and he sat down with the rest as Stress complained some more. 

It was the second meal of the day Fundy had been dragged to spend with more than one Hermit but he enjoyed it quite a lot. 

The Hermits joked around and talked about nothing in particular. They discussed some projects here and there and talked about starting others but in general they were just happy to spend time together. And they looked happy that he was there. 

Fundy decided not to question it. 

Instead he put in his own two cents when they started discussing what to get for lunch and all of them ended up agreeing on steak so it wouldn’t take long.Then, they could all go to Scar’s Big Dig as it was the last place built by one of the Hermits in the “Jungle Gang” as they called themselves.

“We should invite Ren over!” Stress said.

“Nah. Ren is on a major grind today to restock his log shop” Grian replied.

“I’ll leave him a message to see if he wants to join in later “Iskall decided.

“How many trees does he have to chop?” Fundy asked.

“He has an automatic tree farm” Mumbo explained “So the only thing that takes up time is planting the trees again and again.”

“Oh yeah. He didn’t take any of our monstrous designs” Iskall remembered

“What? Didn’t you make him a farm?” Scar asked Iskall.

“I told him he could borrow ‘The Monstrosity’ but Ren didn’t find it enjoyable, so he made his own tree farm. His design is more ‘fun’ according to him” Iskall explained.

Fundy listened to that, completely silent. If Iskall described a redstone contraption as a monstrosity then it must have been a super efficient and giant farm. And for someone to just go ‘nope’ and build their own because ‘more fun’ sounded definitely like something the Hermits would do. 

But still. Why? 

“It wastes a lot of tnt” Grian added “He bought gunpowder in one of the Pesky Birds bulk deals because he was that desperate” Grian added.

“Oh no!” Stress said.

“Grian, how did you trick him?” Iskall asked with a serious face.

“Oh don’t worry, it didn’t have any diorite” Grian joked, making the others snicker while Iskall just huffed indignantly. 

“I just offered him a bunch of shulkers filled with gunpowder. And one of those in the very bottom of the pile may or may not have an IOU in it”

“Mate!” Mumbo complained. 

Iskall also started to argue and Stress tried to settle them down. Meanwhile Fundy leaned towards Scar “What are they talking about?” 

“I have no idea” Scar replied. 

“Hm” Fundy said, leaning back.

After the commotion died, they completely dropped the topic, and carried on like nothing had happened after Mumbo said:

“We should show Fundy the industrial districts” 

“Yeah. That could be fun” Iskall replied

“I don’t know much about redstone” Fundy clarified.

“It might still be fun” Iskall said

“I’ve visited one of Scicraft's main worlds and I didn’t understand anything. It was amazing!” Mumbo replied excitedly.

Fundy shrugged “Okay” Looking at mind blowing redstone while he didn’t understand the basics, it was always fun. “Also, how did you manage that?” Fundy asked.

“I was endorsed by them back in the day” Mumbo replied.

“What?!” 

“Yeah… I… I was endorsed by them.. heh.. but I kinda dropped out of their main program… It was too much pressure” Mumbo admitted.

“That's INSANE” Fundy said, placing his hands on the table and leaning closer. 

“Ha…. yeah….but… it was too much…” Mumbo reiterated. 

Fundy saw Mumbo probably getting anxious over that, so he returned to his chair. 

“Even just touring Scicraft sounds amazing” Fundy said. 

“You could talk with Doc about Scicraft if you want to learn more” Iskall said

“Doc is on Scicraft?”

“Not on the main team anymore, but yeah… he was there and he is still in contact with the people as well” Iskall said. 

Fundy knew more about Etho than Doc, but he had heard the cyborg creeper was a known redstoner. He didn’t know it was to the level of ‘knowing people in Scicraft’ though. 

“Is there someone who isn't like…. super competent?” Fundy asked.

“Oh none of us is competent” Scar said.

Fundy just lifted an eyebrow.

“Not a single brain cell between us” Iskall assured him .

“Maybe like three. And Stress has them all” Grian said.

Stress only laughed. 

“You can’t say you're not competent! That’s illegal!” Fundy complained.

“Well we know redstone and building but none of us are good in pvp.”

“Talk for yourself” Iskall mumbled.

“Oh. Believe me you don’t want competent people in pvp. They just bully everyone into submission” Fundy said. 

“Those people sound rude” Stress said.

Rude. 

Rude?

Rude didn’t even start to describe Technoblade or Dream!

“No no. He has a point” Grian said “False did plant zombies in the shopping district just to save people to win the mayoral election.”

“And Iskall has scammed us out of a lot of diamonds” Mumbo added.

Iskall laughed at that.

“It’s not a scam if everyone is addicted to gambling” the cyborg said.

“I disagree! I spent a ton of diamonds on the Treasure Island and lost like two stacks of diamond blocks” Grian complained.

Fundy almost choked in thin air.

“Come on Gri! It wasn’t that bad” Scar said.

“Yeah! I got a sweet deal out of there” Stress added.

“See? You just were unlucky! That’s how luck minigames work” Iskall said, still chuckling.

“Beef and Impulse also walked without anything. And Impulse spend like what… 4 stacks of diamond blocks?” 

Fundy did choke this time in thin air and he started coughing. 

Seriously what was the Hermits problem!? How could they just… spend diamonds like that?

“Oh dear” Stress said, handing Fundy a glass of water.

“Thanks” Fundy said between coughs.

“Well they went at the very start of the minigame. Maybe they should have planned better and checked later. Like you did” Iskall said.

“Hm. Anyway I believe Fundy had a point” Grian replied.

And just like that the Hermits dropped the topic, before Fundy could complain about their ridiculous spending habits.

Dammit!

—

The day went on and one by one the Hermits said goodbye and made plans with each other which they offered Fundy to join in on. The fox declined most of the plans as he wanted to see the rest of the world first but he assured the Hermits he would join them later.

Mumbo told him that if he was ever bored, he could tell him and he would make sure ‘that wasn’t the case’. It sounded ominous but Stress, Grian and Iskall laughed and encouraged him to take the offer.

Scar seemed as confused as him but Stress seemed to be in whatever Mumbo was proposing and she was sweet so it was probably fine. 

Nearing sunset, the only Hermit left with him was Scar. As he insisted he wanted to show Fundy his ‘big project’. He had agreed and he was now flying with an elytra trailing behind Scar who now used an elytra Iskall lent him.

They didn’t fly for long before the jungled opened up to what seemed to be a mountain biome. But what biome it might be was irrelevant.

In front of him a gigantic complex of roads and buildings extending far enough he couldn’t make out what was at the other side of those walls. Walls, extremely tall, that still didn’t hide the massive drill that loomed menacingly over them.

Scar directed him towards a building and they landed in what would be a helipad.

“Welcome to the ScarX complex here in the overworld!” The builder said proudly.

Fundy remained silent looking everywhere. There were helicopters, robots, a parking lot with drills and cars waiting to enter. But most impressively and horrifying...

There was a gigantic hole that probably had more than 200 blocks across and went straight to bedrock.

It was False’s base all over again except this hole for some reason looked deeper and as if something was rising from it. 

Something that seemed to be trying to grab the drill and that it wrapped itself around the walls of the hole.

Where he expected to see bedrock, all he saw was a red abyss.

“Holy fuck” he whispered still entranced by all of it.

The crater looked like the gaping mouth that probably would have led to the nether if dimensions worked like that.

“Well. Here you have the Big Dig. What do you think?” Scar asked excitedly.

What did he think?

It was not simply a giant hole to bedrock. It was a complete company built around it with what looked like functioning buildings and power cells and everything.

It was impressive. It was terrifying.

“Is incredible” Fundy ended up saying.

Scar smiled pleased and looked over his work as well. 

Fundy jumped from the helipad to the upper part of the walls to be closer. Scar followed him.

“H-how did you do that? Where’s the bedrock?” 

“Oh it’s a building trick. It’s all about layering glass and light sources so it looks like infinite fog” Scar explained.

“That’s crazy’ Fundy said. Looking around and noticing there were robots directing the whole diggin operation.

“You built all of this? Everything?”

“To the last pebble” Scar replied. 

“Why did you go from magic village to giant corporation?” Fundy asked, seeing that the walls of the hole were lined with what looked like roots made out of warped stems.

“I was feeling nostalgic” came the words of the builder. His voice, still kind as ever, sounded a tad bit less cheerful. 

Fundy lifted his eyes to look at Scar who was looking at his work, with a sad smile.

“Nostalgic?” The fox asked, tilting his head confused.

“Of what my life was before world jumping. It wasn’t a fulfilling life but I wonder sometimes if I could have made it fulfilling if I had stayed” the builder replied now looking at Fundy.

“You had a company?” 

“I would have inherited a company” Scar said “A giant conglomerate of companies in fact. But I was never really made to be a businessman” 

Fundy was surprised by that. He hadn’t expected that from Scar of all people.

“So you weren’t happy about it and you left.”

“Yes”

“But you still… miss it?” 

“Well….no. Reading paperwork is not fun and talking with clients is not my thing. That was always something Cub would do. But I was still trained to lead a company and the few times I have done something similar in Hermitcraft have been amazing” he admitted. 

“Do you feel like you wasted your potential?” Fundy asked. He knew how it felt to be useless.

“Not really. Once I found out I could be a terraformer and a builder I knew I wanted to do that. And I have never doubted it. It’s just… sometimes I wonder what would have happened if things had been different, you know?’ 

“I think about that a lot as well” Fundy replied.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I love my job testing worlds but the time I was away from home felt weird. I thought it would be better when I came back. But things went wrong. Very wrong” Fundy admitted. Pausing for a bit before looking back at the sight in front of him “Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t returned.”

He wouldn’t have fallen for Dream had he done that. He would have limited the wars he had to go through to just one. Maybe he would have never learned about his father’s death.

But he would have missed his friends.

“How bad did things get?” Scar asked carefully.

“Pretty bad. I ran for president alongside a friend… and then a guy took over and exiled my dad and one of his friends. And I stayed in the cabinet to make sure the country would be alright. My dad made a rebellion and I was a spy for him. There was another war and my father died. The country got destroyed… but we rebuilt it. And things went fine for a bit. But…. they… they are going south again” Fundy recalled.

Scar looked absolutely distraught . And Fundy noticed it.

“But… it's fine! We… we have dealt with worse before… we can probably take whatever comes next” Fundy said, trying to convince himself rather than Scar. He did leave after all. 

“Fundy. I…. do you…. hm” Scar just walked closer and extended a hand as if to lay it on the younger’s shoulder. 

“You all get so worried” Fundy sighed.

“Well. You are young. And…. and many of us come from worlds like yours… so we… or at least I can’t help it” Scar replied

Worlds like his?

“What do you mean by that? Worlds like.. mine?”

“Violent” Scar simply said.

That single word did make him think about Iskall’s prosthetic eye and arm, and the multiple scars False had in her hands and arms. And the scars that littered Scar’s face.

“Oh” Fundy replied. And then he studied the worried expression on Scar’s face.

“We can always talk” came Grian’s words to his mind. 

“I see” The Hermits attempts to comfort him now made more sense. And seeing as Scar was open for a hug he leaned against him and hugged him. 

Scar hugged him back. His hugs were gentle in contrast to Stress’ or Iskall’s. Even False had a stronger grip. Scar was being careful. 

Iskall’s insistence on bringing him over here specifically made more sense now. 

“You are all good people” Fundy said more for himself than for Scar to hear.

“We try” Scar simply replied.

“At least you try. That’s more than many are willing to do” 

—

Iskall had made their way back to their omega tree to continue leafing it when their communicator started buzzing.

“Hallo” 

“Iskall! my dude!” Said the voice at the other side of the line

“Hallo Ren” Iskall greeted their friend

“How’s it going?”

“Pretty good. I’m leafing my omega tree now”

“Oh, nice”

“What about you dude?”

“I just came back from a mega grind session.”

“Don’t you mean omega grind session?” Iskall said eliciting laughs on both of them

“Maybe dude. Maybe” Ren replied “Also I saw your message!”

“I figured”

“Can't believe I missed the chance to hang out with you dudes!”

“Maybe if you had used ‘The Monstrosity’ this wouldn’t have happened” Iskall joked lightheartedly.

“Don’t be rude!” Ren complained at the other side of the line.

Iskall simply laughed at him.

“You are so mean”

“I’m sure am”

“Meanskall I tell you”

The cyborg only laughed more.

“Do you think Fundy would take me up on the offer of visiting my base?” Ren asked as soon as Iskall settled down.

“Oh Void” Iskall said, still catching his breath “Sure man. I can ask him when he returns if he would like that plan.”

“Awesome!” Ren replied “Well I’m leaving now dude”

“Why so soon?” Iskall complained jokingly.

“I didn’t light up my entire path to return home and I have to rush before any zombie can try and bite a piece off of me”

“You stink. They won’t” Iskall joked

“I hate you dude” 

“Love you too” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you for all your comments! Sorry it took so much time to reply but be sure I read and treassure everysingle one <3
> 
> Ps. If any of you want more Fundy content I just uploaded other works I have written in the background based on different Fundy au's :3


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Hello friends and yet to be friends! Hope you are having a wonderful day :3
> 
> Seems we are going back to a more regular schedule but no promises yet. We will get to each chapter as they get done cause this are some SHAKY TIMES (still i'm super consistent on tumblr and be sure my inbox in @ivi-prism is always open if you want to send me asks, especulations and theories or just want to scream at me because I personally targeted your feelings >:3)
> 
> I'm so excited! this chapter is gonna be fun
> 
> As always thank you Lin (@ivorylin) for beta reading and editing. Also thanks to Tissue (@tissue-4-my-issues) for beta reading as well
> 
> Cw: lots of cursing as it is a Tommy innit chapter, gaslighting and slight undertones of manipulation
> 
> Dream's mask here is different to his usual smiley face mask and if youd like to see it in more detail you can check it here  
> https://ivi-prism.tumblr.com/post/638986339430318080/every-time-i-see-dreams-mask-im-like-how-does
> 
> Without further ado. Enjoy the chapter! <3

“Wakey wakey” 

Tommy opened his eyes just to find the metallic white mask staring down at him. He screamed, startled and fell out of his bed. Prompting the masked man to back off, laughing.

“Good morning Tommy!” Dream greeted cheerfully. 

“Fuck off” tommy said annoyed, having started the day in the worst possible way.

“Oh, don’t kick me out! I made breakfast for you!” Dream replied.

“Shut up” Tommy said, standing up and almost falling onto his face. He was so tired that the desire of his eyes closing again was almost irresistible. He just wanted to collapse again and keep sleeping. 

“Come on! It’s going to get cold!” Dream insisted.

“Piss off Dream. Is too early for this shit” Tommy complained, flopping back to his bed.

Dream simply looked down at the teen and sighed, before picking him up. 

“Ah! What the fuck! Let me go!” Tommy struggled and hit the older man in the back, thrashing violently to be let down. 

“Calm down” 

“Ow” He complained softly

While trashing, Tommy had somehow hit the mask with his hand, immediately regretting it as the impact with the rigid material just hurt him. 

“That’s what you get”

“That wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t picked me up!” 

Dream sighed and didn’t bother arguing. 

“Ha! I’m right!” Tommy boasted “Aren’t I Dr-” 

Dream dropped him besides his campfire suddenly, so he didn’t get to finish his taunt. 

“Oops” Dream said, not at all apologetic.

Tommy stared at him from the floor. He shivered a bit. It was far too early and too cold for this shit. 

Dream simply laughed while he approached the campfire “Hope the grass wasn’t wet” 

It definitely was and Tommy hugged himself being aware of how cold he was “Fuck you”

“Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed” Dream retorted. 

“You literally woke me up!” Tommy complained, standing up and feeling the cold grass with his bare feet. It was- well, not terrible, but definitely bothersome. 

The masked man currently stood in front of the campfire and only as much as spared Tommy a glance before focusing back onto the boiling cauldron sitting in the flames. 

“I’m going back to sleep” Tommy mumbled trying to leave.

“Are you really that cold?”

Tommy didn’t reply, standing in place and doubting. He could go back to his tent, right? 

Dream sighed and he took off his green cape, and then he threw it to Tommy “Sit down. Breakfast is almost done.”

The teen catched the cape and looked surprised at Dream who was suspiciously nice today. He then wrapped himself up in it as if it was a blanket to protect himself from the cold seabreeze. The cape wasn’t even warm. 

“Why is it this cold?” Tommy huffed. He was used to stealing Technos cape which was always comfortably warm when he put it on. And Dream had been wearing this one before. It made no sense for it to be _this_ freezingly cold. 

“It is?” Dream asked, focused on stirring the contents of the cauldron “Well, at least it should help keep you warmer.”

Tommy was looking suspiciously at the scene. What the hell was Dream even preparing there?

“Aren’t you going to sit down?” Dream asked, still focusing on the campfire.

He was still standing up, closer to the campfire than to his bed but Dream was also there. And he didn’t want him there. But the wet grass was uncomfortable and it was tempting to sit down on the log closer to the campfire, even if just for a bit so he wouldn’t freeze. 

He could always sit down and ignore Dream until he got bored and left. 

So Tommy decided to sit down and hug his legs to cover as much as possible with the green cloak in hopes of preserving as much warmth as possible. 

Dream was crouched beside the campfire, and he kept stirring the cauldron while he hummed to himself. 

It was a weirdly calm and domestic moment, as were all times Dream act ‘normal’ around him. Although, thinking about it, they never served as a quiet moment for Tommy. They always made him uneasy. 

Dream would go on and say or do something awful eventually. He was sure. 

He stayed quiet, letting the time pass to prevent any provocation, but the silence was driving him mad. It didn’t help either that the early seabreeze was still blowing strongly. 

“It’s too fucking cold out here, why did you even wake me up?” Tommy complained, unable to help himself. He didn’t like the silence. 

“I told you, I made breakfast,” Dream replied before taking a bowl out of his inventory.

“Eat up” Dream said, serving and handing him a bowl of mushroom stew. 

Tommy looked at the dish being handed to him and then at Dream, then back to the bowl and he slowly reached out and took it, examining it suspiciously.

Dream simply glanced at Tommy. Or at least the white mask was facing him. There was no way to tell if the person behind it was actually looking at him. But the mask definitely was. 

Tommy would break that damn mask one of these days, when he got the chance. Just so it would stop looking at him, always looking, always observant, always threatening-. 

It was Dream who broke his train of thought. “I have something important to do today, so I decided to come and check on you early. So eat” Dream said impatiently.

Tommy just held Dream’s stare, at least he thought he did.

Dream looked Tommy then turned to the bowl.

“It’s not poisoned” he said, irritation in his voice.

“How do I know that?” Tommy asked back.

Dream simply groaned a bit and looked at his hand briefly, and then proceeded to touch his hands to his ears.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Tommy asked, confused.

“Proving to you it’s not poisoned” Dream replied. He took another bowl from his inventory and walked around the campfire, not sitting directly across from Tommy but still far enough. He then placed his hands on the sides of his mask briefly before it clicked. He took a deep breath and pulled the lower part of his mask away, leaving only his mouth visible.

Tommy just stared. He always though the stupid thing was one piece, a complete mask. 

Dream placed the detached part of his mask on top of one of the logs, then went back to the campfire. 

Tommy looked shook to the core, trying to catch the slightest hint that would suggest Dream was tricking him. 

“Why are you staring? Didn’t think I had a face?” Dream asked, smiling mockingly while he served himself a bowl of stew. 

“The fuck?” Tommy asked quietly. This was weird. He never knew Dream had freckles, or such sharp teeth.

Seriously they somehow looked like they were too big for his mouth. Not even Bad had such sharp teeth. And he was a demon. 

“Are you even human?” Tommy mumbled.

Dream simply walked back to the log he had chosen and sat down. 

“Did you hear me?” Tommy asked but Dream ignored. Instead slurping the stew and emptying the entire thing in just one gulp. 

Tommy decided not to question anything further. It really _was_ too early for this shit.

“Oh, it turned out better than expected” Dream said, surprise apparent, smiling slightly. 

The teen just stared at him. This was one weird ass morning. 

“See? Told you it wasn’t poisoned” Dream said.

Tommy had forgotten about that bit by now. But still he wasn’t going to eat that. 

Dream saw his reluctance. So he stood up again and approached the campfire again. 

“I brought you breakfast but if you don’t want it, then fine” the masked man said, clearly moving to fill his bowl again.

The teen stared at him a little longer. It didn’t seem like it was poisoned but all of this was still suspicious. Was he just doing this to taunt him? Or to convince him it was safe? 

“Why are you doing all of this?” He didn’t buy Dream’s ‘kind’ behaviour one bit, he had to be up to something. 

The masked man looked at him and remarked casually “Why do I need a reason? I just figured you would probably want food.”

“Don’t- don’t fucking lie to me. You only do nice things when you are going to do something terrible” Tommy said.

“I just felt like doing something nice today” Dream replied, seemingly unfazed by Tommy’s apparent anger, stirring the stew. 

“But if you don’t want it, then fine. I’ll just have the rest, I don’t have to do anything for you.” he said, filling the bowl again. 

Tommy was about to complain again but he realized Dream was wearing a silver chain with a ring on it. He had never seen it before. 

Dream exhaled loudly for some reason before saying. “You are really difficult, Tommy, you know that?”

“No shit! Wonder why that is!” Tommy complained.

Dream probably realized why Tommy was looking at him as he took the chain and tucked it safely under his shirt “I, too, wonder why you won’t just cooperate”

But Tommy hardly heard him.This was suspicious. Dream had said himself he didn’t have any attachments. Weapons and armour could be replaced but that chain didn’t look like something one could get on the Dream SMP. 

“Dream what is that?” Tommy asked.

“What is what? The stew? That‘s mushroom stew” Dream replied easily, going back to sit on the log.

“Don’t play dumb. That chain you are wearing. What is it?” Tommy asked.

Dream sat down back in his place and sipped at the stew in favor of responding.

He was avoiding the topic. Oh, Tommy had found something interesting.

“Aw, does the big bad Dream actually care for something?”he taunted, suddenly not tired anymore.

“It’s a chain Tommy. Come on” Dream replied in his eerily calm voice, even though Tommy heard the _slightest_ forced edge to it.

“Oh, but it sure looked fancy! I bet someone gave it to you!” Tommy pressed on. 

Dream calmly sipped more stew before replying “Nope” 

“Then what about the ring! Did Gogy finally decide-” Tommy stopped. 

Dream drank more stew before replying “George? Pftt he would never propose. I actually had to go and propose otherwise I would have-”

  
  


“Fundy gave you that ring” Tommy said in a solemn voice. 

Dream stopped, and Tommy realized he had hit gold.

“You were lying. Fundy gave you that ring” Tommy repeated, incredulous laughter bubbling up in his throat.

Dream went to grab the removed part of his mask. But his hand only hovered over the top of it for a moment before retreating it as the masked man replied, seeming enthusiastic:

“Congrats! You are the first to know” 

He thought Fundy was lying when he told him he was engaged with Dream. His glee at finding something out quickly shattered.

“What the fuck!?” Tommy said, standing up and accidentally spilling the stew.

“Ugh. Tommy” Dream said in a disappointed voice “That’s such a waste”

“Why the fuck are you trying to marry Fundy?!” Tommy stared at Dream. To hell with the spilled soup!

Dream calmly finished his bowl of stew and immediately clipped the lower part of his mask back on. He breathed heavily before replying.

“The best reason why people get married. Because I love him.”

“Bullshit! You said you don’t care for people” Tommy said angrily.

Why would Fundy want to marry Dream? He had threatened L’Manberg, he blew it up, and then he trapped it!

And why would Dream even accept such a proposal? What did he want out of one of his friends?

“Oh yeah, I lied. What else is new?” Dream remarked sarcastically before standing up

“All of you would have gone after him. He’s gone through enough. He doesn't need his friends turning against him as well” he said, going back to the campfire.

Fundy would never have agreed to this.

He had told him about the engagement after Dream had threatened all of them. It was probably a call for help - one which Tommy had completely missed, he realized now.

“We wouldn’t have done that!” Tommy complained.

“Just like your friends didn’t turn on you. Sure” Dream said with poison on his voice, clearly fed up now.

Tommy recoiled visibly at that before forcing himself to strike back again.

“You forced them! It’s not my fault!” Tommy shot back “also, don’t you change the topic! How did you threaten Fundy? Why is he marrying you?”

“I did _no_ such thing” Dream said, now more exasperated. “We’ve been together for years now and besides, he proposed to _me_ ”

“WHAT?!” That had to be a lie.

Dream groaned while he took a water bucket out of his inventory. “Yeah. Fundy didn’t trust anyone enough to tell them, but we have been together for three years now. I thought you would know as the good friends you are” he said, spitefulness seeping through every word in his once so calm voice

Three years? That was far too long. Dream had to be lying. How would they even hide it for so long?

And why would Fundy go with it? If he hid it, he must have been aware it was wrong, because that’s the reason people hide stuff, was it not.

“You are a fucking monster. There is no way Fundy is doing this voluntarily” Tommy said, enraged. And that made Dream stop dead in his tracks.

“He supported me when I told you off!” Tommy added “And he was just as angry as we were. You forced him into this! There’s no way he would do it willingly!”

“You started this conflict and forced me to put my foot down. I knew he was angry, understandably so. But you don’t get to judge me” Dream said in a cold voice. He was standing perfectly still, his back turned to Tommy.

“I do! You act like anyone would agree to that! Not even George likes you anymore, what makes you think Fundy loves you?”

“What did you just say?” Dream asked. He hadn’t turned around but his calm voice had gained a dangerous edge.

Tommy immediately backed off. He recognized that tone.

“Tommy. What did you say?” Dream asked again, the water bucket he had just taken out of his inventory disappearing “You are always so eager to talk. Why won’t you repeat yourself right now?”

Tommy knew he should run, _had_ to run but he was frozen in place.

“If I heard correctly, you just lied” Dream said, looking over his shoulder. His face obscured as always by the artificial smile.

“I-it’s… is not a lie” Tommy dared to mutter, backing away slowly. “And even if it was…you lie…we all lie sometimes.”

“We all lie” Dream repeated. He turned around to fully face him. “We. All. Lie” he gave a step forward and Tommy backed away.

“We all lie but unlike you I know how to pay for the consequences of doing so” Dream said, lurching forward before Tommy could react and pull his cloak from him. Making Tommy fall down in the process.

“And you should definitely learn as well.”

Tommy simply pressed himself flat against the floor. There was nothing he could do except fear for his dear life.

“You won’t be seeing anyone” Dream declared. Finality in his voice.

“What” Tommy croaked.

“You heard me, no more visits. From anyone” Dream repeated.

“Wha- wha… what do you mean I won’t be seeing anyone?!” Tommy asked, trying to think what the fastest way to the nether portal was.

Dream was definitely going to kill him. 

No wonder he was being nice all this time. He was happy to get rid of him. The fucker!

“Tommy” Dream said. Offering him a hand to help him up

“No, fuck off! And answer me first!” Tommy said, backing away as well as he could, still laying on the ground.

Dream sighed exasperatedly and threw his head back, mumbling something incoherent before sighing some more and clasping his hands to gather himself.

“Not seeing anybody includes me and Ghostbur. Maybe then you might understand you can’t go around saying whatever you want to say. Because people leave you behind” Dream said, accompanying every word with a step towards Tommy, now looming over him threateningly.

“I thought you would have learned by now. But consequences are simply something you can’t get through your stupidly dense skull now, can you?”

It was phrased like a threat and it was most likely one as well (it had to be, had to be, had to…). Because if Dream left, then there was nothing stopping him from running away. But that clearly was not going to happen.

He would never leave. He would simply keep Ghostbur away and he wouldn’t interact with him.

He could cope without Dream ever talking to him again. But cutting his brother from his life like this was the tipping point.

“But you will get that right? Being completely and truly isolated might finally make you realize” Dream said, mostly in an entranced voice like he was telling himself that.

He was definitely going to do something else to him.

“How do you know I will stay here?” Tommy asked, trying to get more information out of him and quickly looking him up and down to anticipate any sudden movement. 

He needed to get as much out of Dream as possible to make a plan. And the masked man liked to talk as much as Tommy himself did.

“Because that’s the sentence you are paying for L’manbergs liberty” Dream said in a calmer voice. The dangerous edge even if quieter was still present in every syllable he said.

Out of nowhere he grabbed at Tommy’s shirt and lifted him up from the floor. 

Tommy didn’t even dare to scream. It was pointless. And he was already scared. He wouldn’t give anything to that stupid metallic mask. 

He tried to stare it down. But that stupid mask stayed unmoving, hiding behind dark lenses the eyes that were now definitely staring at him.

“Remember. You left so L’Manberg wouldn’t pay the price” Dream said, still holding the teen by his shirt.

“And a price has to be paid. And if you don’t do it, L'Manberg pays” Dream said, dropping him and going back to the campfire

He was taunting him, reminding him that the future of L’Manberg relied on him even if Dream was the one that held the nation in his hands. It was awful. Tommy gritted his teeth. 

Seriously, what else was there that Dream could take away from him?

The masked man stopped once more, inspecting at the place Tommy had sat, while he put his cloak back on.

“You never even tasted the stew” he said.

Tommy was too on edge to argue about such stupid thing.

Dream sighed and picked up the bowl. “Come on. Sit down” 

Tommy didn’t.

“Tommy” Dream repeated.

“Why do you insist? Just leave me with the stupid stew ” The teen said, fear and tiredness and anger boiling over.

“You won’t eat otherwise, I know you won't” Dream said, shaking the bowl and looking it over.

“And why exactly does that worry _you_?” Tommy had been done with Dream the moment he woke him up. And he was even more done with him now.

“I’m worried about the well being of everyone in my world. Even unruly teenagers that won’t learn things the easy way” Dream said. No trace of sarcasm on his voice.

Did he fully believe it?

Tommy wished he would have spent the entire day sleeping. And the day after as well.

He turned to leave. He was cold, he was tired, he was angry and he was definitely afraid.

He didn’t need to stay and keep up with Dream’s bullshit after his outburst. And his threat to keep Ghostbur away from him was probably an empty one. How would he even restrict the access of a ghost?

“I mean, it is probably the last you will be seeing of anyone in a while. You can at least have breakfast with someone” Dream said, serving another bowl of stew.

“So you can keep being an asshole?” Tommy said walking back to his tent.

Dream sighed “You provoked me”

Tommy stopped in his tracks. This was ridiculous. 

“I came here with an offering of peace to settle things down but have it your way.” Dream said

Tommy turned around to see Dream looking at him.

If Dream was serious about isolating him then fine!

Fucking whatever. If he drank the stupid stew Dream would leave and he wouldn’t have to see his stupid mask.

“Fine. Fine!” Tommy said, turning around to sit back down. He dreaded the cold, now that he didn’t have the cloak anymore. It was probably warm and cozy by now but Dream had it again.

Dream handed him the bowl again “That's the last of it so please, for the love of the Void bellow, don’t waste it” he remarked.

Tommy just rolled his eyes and took the bowl, taking a sip to discover that in fact, it didn’t actually taste bad. Tommy was mildly annoyed at that, seeing as he had planned on teasing Dream if the soup had tasted anything worse than mediocre.

“You can actually cook?” Tommy asked, quite surprised.

“Yeah” Dream responded, taking the water bucket out of his inventory again and approaching the campfire to put it out. “It gets boring, eating the same thing over and over again so I had to get better at making stew.”

Tommy simply slurped more stew. He hated to admit it, but it really was good and he was hungry.

Dream put out the fire and then looked at the cauldron. He then clipped the lower part of his mask again. He took a deep inhale before sighing, putting the lower part of his mask away again and lifting the little cauldron to inspect what leftovers were there.

“Can you even breathe without that thing?” Tommy asked. He was still weirded out by Dream’s earlier behavior. He always thought the air filters in the mask were for decoration, but it started to become apparent they might actually be functional.

“I can. I literally just talked to you without it before, didn’t I?” Dream answered, most likely considering if he could get anything out of the cauldron.

That sounded…alright? Tommy narrowed his eyes… something about it didn’t make sense but… whatever. He took another sip of his stew.

Dream simply opened his mouth and shook the cauldron, trying to get the last few drops of stew, sticking his tongue out on the process.

Tommy almost choked on his stew “What the fuck?!”

“What?” Dream asked, clearly not paying attention.

“Why is your tongue purple!?” Tommy was convinced now Dream couldn’t be human.

“It is?” Dream asked before opting to simply sip whatever was left on the cauldron.

“Don’t play dumb! What the fuck are you?”

Dream simply looked more at the cauldron and then he looked at Tommy and stuck his tongue out. It looked normal?

“I don’t know what you are talking about Tommy” Dream said. “You’re not becoming delusional, are you?”

Tommy swore he had seen something. And even if he hadn’t, he was at least certain he had seen Dream having literal shark teeth or something.

“Is something on my mouth?” Dream asked, smiling widely. No shark teeths, no fangs. Nothing out of the ordinary.

“W-what?” Tommy questioned under his breath.

He had seen it.

He had seen it. He was certain.

He didn’t imagine. Right?

_Right?_

He couldn’t have. Why would he have imagined it?

It was super random. It couldn’t have been his mind alone, surely.

“So… I assume that's a no then” Dream said before storing the now empty cauldron in his inventory and walking back to the spot he had sat on earlier.

Was he doing this on purpose?

Both stayed quite for the next minutes. Tommy trying to make sense of what he had seen and Dream not bothering to talk with him. He decided that what he have seen, coupled with the mask had to be real. He didn't have any prove but he decided it was real. Maybe Tubbo would help him eventually to figure out what was underneath the mask. 

In the meantime he was under the watchful eye of Dream even if he seemed to not be paing attention to him. The silence that creept between them grew steadily tense, or at least Tommy percived it that way. He was still on edge and the silence only told him that something was going to happen and that he didn't know. So out of options he decided to ask, to know, or at least have something to fill the silence

“So… aside from more isolation. Is the exile getting extended?” the teen asked not expecting answers

“No… in about a month, month and a half you will be back in L’Manberg” Dream said, picking up the lower part of his mask and clipping it again. He sighed.

Tommy simply took another sip from his soup. He was sure he actually had less than a month left so Dream was lying.

What was new?

“What are you going to do after exile is over?” Dream asked suddenly

This was probably a trap.

“Not cause trouble I suppose” Tommy said.

“I hope you stick to that plan-”

“That is, if you give me the other disk” Tommy said. Sipping more stew and looking directly at Dream.

“Hm” Dream said “why would I give it to you?”

“If I pay my sentence, you’ll have no reason to hold the disk as guarantee. Also, you said L’manberg was indepent so… it doesn't make sense if you keep it” Tommy said in between sips.

Dream stayed silent - dangerously silent.

Tommy focused on the stew but he could feel the mask staring at him. It was a horrible feeling.

Literally all that could be heard was the seabreeze and Tommy slurping the stew.

Tommy stopped because he was getting uncomfortable again. He looked up just to find Dream was still looking at him.

He could admit he had pushed Dream before. But regarding the disks, he was in the right. After all, Dream’s rules were not to steal, so those disks really should be returned to him under the admin’s own laws.

Dream laughed. Of all things he could do he laughed. It was a humorless laugh, but a laugh nonetheless.

Tommy hated it.

“Oh Tommy” Dream sighed. He passed a hand through his hair clearly annoyed. He then let go and looked upwards “What am I going to do with you?” The question was almost growled out.

“Give me my disks and leave me alone” Tommy suggested, trying to sound as challenging as possible.

“Oh. Definitely not that” The masked man said apparently composing himself.

“Why not?” Tommy asked with all seriousness.

“You truly won’t learn?” Dream asked.

Tommy slurped more stew feigning ignorance.

“Your actions have consequences Tommy” Dream said “When will you learn that?”

The way that bitch said it. With so much self-righteousness. It was awful, but there were no signs of him trying something like earlier and even if there were, Tommy was done

“You stole the disks from me!” Tommy complained.

Dream calmly replied from his place:

“You gave those disks to me Tommy. You gave them in exchange for L'Manberg's independence. You gave them up. And they are mine to do whatever I’d like.”

“I gave one to Tubbo and he can do whatever he’d want with the one he has. The only one still in the illusion that they are yours to do whatever you’d like with is _you_ , Tommy” Dream said.

“You stole them first!” Tommy complained and pointed an accusatory finger at him.

“And you got them back and then you gave them voluntarily” Dream said crossing his arms.

Tommy stared at him.

Dream didn’t move

“That’s not fair” Tommy said.

“Oh let’s not talk about fairness...when have you ever been fair?”

“Me?!” Tommy asked, completely baffled.

Dream simply opened his inventory while he replied, probably rolling his eyes judging by the tone of his voice: “Yes Tommy, you.”

Tommy was about to throw hands. This man that had imposed himself onto everyone and had taken a single mistake and blown it out so out of proportion he was now exiled and banned from seeing anyone, was accusing HIM of being unfair?

When he had condemned him to be alone only because he got angry?

“I hate you so fucking much” Tommy said not doing anything to hide his anger

“I can see that. You aren’t helping yourself. If you just cooperate, things might go better for you, Tommy” Dream said looking absentmindedly through his inventory

“You committed crimes and instead of answering for them you escalated them. And instead of facing consequences you keep making troubles. That is going to get you killed someday” the admin said

“And you won't?” Tommy asked.

“Of course not. I’m just trying to teach you a lesson. Once you learn it you are free to go” Dream said, closing his inventory.

“I think you are just looking for reasons to be shitty.”

“Had you acted like this with other admins, they would have banned you from their worlds. And the universe is not always kind so really, you could die out there” Dream pointed out.

Tommy simply stayed quiet.

“I’m not asking you not to be so… unapologetic about being yourself… just… you should learn to be more reasonable.”

“You aren’t very reasonable yourself” Tommy complained

Dream didn’t reply. He rose up to his feet. 

“Do what is right, Tommy” he said simply.

“What is right, or what you think is right?”

Dream walked away without sparing Tommy another glance.

Tommy looked back at his stew. And he took the last sip before throwing the bowl away, completely done. He was going back to sleep right now. He looked in the direction Dream had vanished to see if he was going to keep on bothering him. But he was well and truly gone.

Well, it wasn’t his problem anymore. And so he walked back to the tent to get some sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Knifes at your left if you want to stab Dream, pop corn in the right if you are just here to watch the drama unfold ;3

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!


End file.
